Kathmandu— Across Europe, wildfires are becoming more frequent and severe due to a combination of human-induced climate change and inadequate forest management. While sparks from machinery or other sources can ignite fires, it is the perfect storm of dry vegetation, hot weather, and abundant fuel that transforms these blazes into megafires.

Climate Change Intensifies Fire Conditions

Scientists point to three key factors that determine whether a wildfire will spread rapidly: the amount of vegetation available to burn, how dry that vegetation is, and weather conditions. Climate change exacerbates these conditions by creating more frequent and intense heatwaves and droughts.

"When all three of these conditions are very much fire-prone and they align, then you have this kind of fire event," said Francesca Di Giuseppe, a fire forecast project coordinator at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. This summer, Europe has seen simultaneous wildfires breaking out in France, Spain, Greece, and Turkey, driven by similar patterns of heat and drought.

Forest Management Practices Contribute to Fire Risk

Across parts of Europe, large areas have been planted as monocultures dominated by a single species grown for quick timber. This practice has made forests more susceptible to rapid fire spread.

"Some of the fires we've been seeing in France and Spain are in places where you have these very flammable trees which are quite fine and they often are growing close together so fire spreads really easily," Doug Kelley, a land surface modeler at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, told DW. The Landes de Gascogne forest in southwestern France, currently ablaze, is dominated by maritime pine, a species that sheds coarse needles providing abundant fuel for fires.

Preventing Future Disasters

Experts emphasize the importance of reducing risk before fires start. This includes tackling greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change and improving forest management practices.

"Trying to prevent in the first place the landscape becoming so flammable is one of the most effective ways to try to avoid this kind of extreme fire behavior," said Di Giuseppe. Replacing monocultures with mixed forests, planting broadleaf trees that store more moisture, and creating breaks between rows of trees can help slow fire spread.

(With inputs from DW)

Originally published on abcnews.com.np.