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French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time

france24.com

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Re: French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time

#171

Post by Ma8ee »

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote: post #163
reco98gg wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main reason the forest is burning is global warming. There were 3 punishing heatwaves before the fire, it was just a matter of time. A part of the Fontainebleau forest, much more north, no pine trees, went in smoke earlier. Forests are burning near Madrid. It may make some people feel better to think that it is an isolated, local problem, but unfortunately global warming is the main culprit and we at least need t…

Regardless of your view on global warming, what's also vitally important is we don't do proper forest management anymore. We used to thin the trees and clear the underbrush, which drastically reduces flammability and the ability for forest fires to rapidly spread. But that's not seen as "environmentally friendly" these days.

Don't put this on the environmentalists when the simple explanation isn't short term cost effective to do this. If you need to put some big blanket blame, then blame capitalism. If nothing else because it has so far stopped all effective measure to stop the climate crisis.

Re: French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time

#172

Post by applepearlime »

markdown wrote: post #162
superfrank wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the person you're responding to was trying to deny global warming being a factor. I think they're just explaining why this fire is so bad compared to other fires we have seen in France before. I know global warming plays a major role in this, but I still found it interesting to know why this fire seems so bad.

The pine forests have been there for centuries, so it being pine is no explanation at all for why it's burning so badly now .

But one pine forest in France has burned badly in the past as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_Landes_forest_fire

Did you check for forest fires in the past?

Re: French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time

#173

Post by reco98gg »

yoghurtwere wrote: post #170
reco98gg wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may be absolutely right about the OP, I cannot know. Still, I believe it is important to highlight the elephant in the room first. For example to your point: "I still found it interesting to kmow why this fire seems so bad compared to [...] before", I think it is important to state: "because global warming is getting worse over time". Not because pine trees, which have been around for a long time, and have never…

> Not because pine trees, which have been around for a long time, and have never burned so badly. Are you sure? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_Landes_forest_fire

I responded to this elsewhere on this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49065156

Basically they had no way to fight those fires at the time, as the article explains.

Re: French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time

#174

Post by rixed »

j1elo wrote: post #56

Spain is also completely on fire - there's a website that collects all official information and locates every fire on a map: https://xn--incendiosespaa-2nb.es/ (in Spanish) It is disheartening to see how everything is basically in red.

If you unzoom even more, even the sea is red. I don't think this map shows what you think it does.

Re: French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time

#175

Post by rixed »

cineticdaffodil wrote: post #149
kortilla wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Statements like these embolden climate change deniers because they look so panicked beyond reason. Spain isn’t “completely on fire” and Spain frequently has fires like California. You need to quantify in sq km or some other objective unit what makes this so unique.

Spain planted eucalyptus in state forrest. Tha treeis a bomb.

You are answering "tree is bomb" to someone explaining why over panicking does a disservice to your cause.

Regarding eucalyptus burning: a lot of them burned suddenly after a policy change allowing land to be repurposed after wildfires, I've just been told by locals.

Re: French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time

#176

Post by artisinal »

throw-the-towel wrote: post #99
artisinal wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I read in another comment this was caused by Napoleon.

Napoleon did his geo-engineering 150 years ago, in a completely different world. He's not the one to blame here.

He planted highly flammable trees is a hot part of the country. Even in his times it got 35 degrees over there.

Re: French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time

#177

Post by lnsru »

ColdStream wrote: post #121
chewbacha wrote: post #62

I’m sure if we build a few more AI data centers the world will cool down and we’ll stop having all these fires. Just a few more GPUs ought to fix it.

I always though it would be funny if we actually did manage to get to super AGI, we then ask it "How can we save the future for us?" It thinks for a few days, cross comparing everything in written history and then comes back with only a single sentence. "Love the Earth and life like you love yourselves." Then it goes quiet not answering anything else.

The AGI’s conclusion will be simpler: humanity extinction. I am renovating my home and digging out the perimeter. Despite pavements being decades old I still find thrash buried around the house. Other houses in the neighborhood has the same problem. Relatives bought a villa near Bordeaux. Guess what, previous owners buries many cubic meters of asbestos under the entrance. AGI will not save few ones picking their litter for the majority of environmental pigs.

Re: French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time

#178

Post by vasco »

reco98gg wrote: post #167
zahlman wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sources I can readily find place the total extent of forest fires in France this year at 40,000 hectares, still less than https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_Landes_forest_fire .

And the context is that at the time, they had no way to fight those fires. So yes, it burned 50,000 ha. That was the starting point of devising ways to efficiently fight forest fires. Today we have plenty of specialized trucks, trained firemen, planes, helicopters, who have been fighting for 5 days, and already 42,000 ha are gone. 32,000 ha 4 years ago. After a very wet winter. Climate is changing drastically, exactl…

What does the means to fight the fire have to do with the starting cause of a fire?

Re: French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time

#179

Post by bryanrasmussen »

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote: post #163
reco98gg wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main reason the forest is burning is global warming. There were 3 punishing heatwaves before the fire, it was just a matter of time. A part of the Fontainebleau forest, much more north, no pine trees, went in smoke earlier. Forests are burning near Madrid. It may make some people feel better to think that it is an isolated, local problem, but unfortunately global warming is the main culprit and we at least need t…

Regardless of your view on global warming, what's also vitally important is we don't do proper forest management anymore. We used to thin the trees and clear the underbrush, which drastically reduces flammability and the ability for forest fires to rapidly spread. But that's not seen as "environmentally friendly" these days.

Well, Denmark is I believe a country very big on being seen as "environmentally friendly" and they thin trees, generally to restore habitats and increase diversity of species. What gives?

Re: French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time

#180

Post by wosk »

Le Monde, very reputed French newspaper (NYtimes equivalent for France perhaps) says that it’s not the first time this cloud is seen in France [1]: (translation mine)

> “What is happening right now is extremely, extremely unusual. Seeing a cloud this massive and reaching such an altitude above a wildfire is exceptionally rare,” the researcher explains.

“During the Pedrógão fire [which claimed around 60 lives in Portugal in 2017], there were two episodes of fire-induced thunderstorms. Here, we are already at eight or ten, and the forecast is not encouraging at all.”

Although unprecedented in both intensity and frequency, the phenomenon has been observed in France before, according to the expert: during the Fontainebleau wildfire (Seine-et-Marne) in July, the Ribaute fire (Aude) in 2025, and the Générac fire (Gard) in 2019.

It seems that this cloud and the attached storms have been seen before, even recently, in France, but this one is one of a kind for intensity, by far.

[1] https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2026/07/27/le-pyrocum...

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