Portugal on fire

You've probably all heard about the forest fires in Portugal devastating the country but I just found this satellite image which gives you an idea of the scale of the problem:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Aug2003/Portugal.AMOA2003215_lrg.jpg

(I didn't directly include the image because it's so large allthough the file size is only about 370Kb). The red squares mark the location of fires.

Guess where yours truly is going to be having a driving holiday for the next two weeks... :yikes:

Fortunately none of the fires were near Lisbon but they got pretty close to my parents in laws house

Michael.

 

I'm not surprised with this heatweave, I've just got back from a mini night out in Manchester and it felt like it was 30c at 22:00! I checked the offical temperature from the MET office and it was 24:00. Apparantly it peaked 35c today in Manchester which is one of the hottest days Manchester's ever seen. I'm dripping in sweet white now even though I have a pernament supply of soft drinks flowing throgh me.

I havent known it this hot since 1990 and I was only small then. This summer probably makes 1976 seem like winter.

I hope they manage to put out the fires anyway.

 

actually it is nowhere near (so far). In 1976 there were 15 consecutive days where the temperature was over 32 deg C and it hardly rained from about april to september IIRC. This year has a way to go to beat 1976.

 

so thats why people always go on about what a hot summer it was?

 

My parents tell me it went on continously for months as well, and that Britain practically turned into a desert.

This summer hasnt been too bad, but nowhere near 76 from what I heard.

 

ah the summer of 76,seem to rember 77 was fairly good as well,but all those sumers back in the 70's seemed hotter/longer/better to a young hippy,endless school free days
thinking of making a diy air condioner once weve run out of margaritas ,put a couple of fans inside the freezer and leave the door open should work

 

Talking of which I've just had to convert a single socket into a double into my bedroom so I can have the fan on the other socket. I couldn't help thinking the fan was affecting the HIFI when used on the same distribution block.

 

In '76 the reserviors ran dry.. completely ! and tarmac on the road started to bubble... I was only 10 years old but I remember it clearly to this day. This year may be peaking at a higher temperature.. but '76 lasted a lot longer and was much drier.

GTM

 

Ah 76. I took my O levels that year so summer started early for me with a two week walking and camping trek through the Cotswolds - and the sun shone. Then I had a two week scout camp near Brighton - and the sun shone. Then I had two weeks in Jersey with my folks - and the sun shone. I can remember going out on my moped (Yamaha FS1E ) and having my arms burnt by hot air rising from the gently simmering road surface. The sun shone from at least early June to early September without a break. There were severe water shorages. Elton John and Kiki Dee were breaking each other's hearts. And still the sun shone on.

Chris

 

What a summer its been sorry was only 2 in 76 so can't remember it at all but its been the longest and hottest in my lifetime for sure.

So I would like to pass my heartfelt thanks to all those people who brought the fuel and drove the miles to create such a sizzler of a summer, nice one.

 

Michael.

Yes, it is awful, horrible. My parents had to go to the interior by car, and their experience was most frightening, it seems: there was fire just everywhere, right by the side of the highway.

I wasn't directly affected (we went to our beach house where it was cool and misty), but I'm furious with the fact that politicians do nothing about this. Of course you can't get rid of the problems, but you could minimize it, or at least be prepared for it. It really is easy to make people clean their woods (why doesn't the army do it, or the law enforce it?), to built separation zones ('corta-fogos') and good accesses to the most far away zones. And, of course, get a capable coordinator of the fire extinguishing operation and buy the adequate material. In my youth, there were far less means, but the fires were usually controlled just because there was such legislation (forest cleaning was mandatory).

I know the interior rather well, and I'm perfectly aware that some places are very difficult to protect; also, that arson is almost impossible to control. But nevertheless, the problem goes back many years from now, and there is precious little done to control it.

I really despair of these things.

 

its just mother nature doing her annual weeding,developers should take this into account when building in such areas ,just like the money grabers building developments on flood plain,and then winge that there houses get flooded every couple of years.

 

The speed at which this disaster got out of control though is staggering and it seems they can do very little to stop it, even with all our mechines and technology we still bow down to mother nature, we're completely powerless.

But I agree with hippy there, if you build a house in the middle of a forest, or flood plain for that matter, your just asking for trouble.