1. Forest Fires in Portugal 2003
In Summer 2003 there was an enourmous heatwave on the northern hemisphere. The heatwave affected much of Europe, causing forest fires and a number of deaths across the Continent.
In Portugal the heatwave was the hottest and longest recorded ever. It fanned the country’s worst forest fires in more than 20 years, with an area almost as big as Luxembourg destroyed and at least 15 people killed in blazes. 250 square kilometers of arable crop were burnt and 45.000 people lost either their job or their belongings. Consequently Portugal has declared a national disaster due to the fires.
On September 15th the newsmagazin planetark (by Reuters) writes as follows:
“ Smoke Blankets Lisbon as Forest Fires Rake Portugal (PORTUGAL: September 15, 2003)
LISBON - More than 1,000 firefighters battled to control forest blazes in Portugal on the weekend including two that blanketed the capital Lisbon in smoke.
With Portugal already facing its worst forest fire season on record, Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso blamed an upsurge this week on arson.
"Things are very difficult when the firefighters put out fires and criminal hands light them," he said in remarks carried on private TSF radio. Durao Barroso vowed a complete investigation.
A spokesman for the National Emergency Operations Center said firefighters were trying to contain three blazes, including one in coastal mountains about 120 miles south of Lisbon. Fires in Loures, about 10 miles north of central Lisbon, and in Mafra, about 25 miles north of the capital, wreathed Lisbon in smoke by late afternoon.
Lisbon firefighters were flooded by hundreds of calls about the smoke, Lusa news agency reported.
"This is bad," said Jose da Silva Antunes, 65, as he peered through the eye-stinging haze that replaced Lisbon's normal late-summer sunshine.
"I've seen really thick smoke before, but nothing like this year."
The blazes have been fanned by heat that neared 99 degrees Fahrenheit in Lisbon on the weekend. The weather service forecast a slight drop in temperatures in coming days.
Fires have destroyed about 11 percent of Portugal's forests for the year through August 31, according to the Agriculture Ministry. At least 18 people have died in fires this year.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE”
www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/22225/story.htm
The following satellite picture from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite, taken on August 4, 2003, shows the fires, which flared up between morning and afternoon quite well:
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