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Satellite image of wildfires in France
(thelemmy.club)
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this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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Why are there so many? How do they break out?
The whole south west region is an artificial forest for monoculture (Forêt des Landes). It's "naturally" quite prone to fires, and even more so nowadays with all the heat waves we faced.
It's basically kindling now, so a single cigarette butt (or in the case of the largest one, maintenance on a powerline) goes completely out of hand in mere minutes.
It's so dry and windy that the fires can jump a kilometre at a time, that's why there are so many right now.
Doesn't have to be people. Lightning is a cause, or a piece of glass that inadvertently acts as a lens and focuses the sunlight... Although that might also be considered as "caused by people".
Because it got so big it formed a pyrocumulonimbus causing a big storm with lightning strikes everywhere. This was never seen in France before
There are two main smoke plumes, which look gray, translucent, and continuous. The fluffy, white splotches are just clouds (except in the areas where they overlap the smoke plumes, where they might be pyrocumulonimbus clouds, for all I know).
It looks more like just one big fire (with several fronts) to me. It's that big splotchy black area under and around my "smoke plumes" label.
https://intentanalytics.fr/feux/carte
Not everything you’re seeing in the photo is a wildfire. The consolidated puffy white clumps are just ordinary clouds. The wildfire smoke is the gray, streaky haze underneath. You can see the darker area of burnt ground and the fires themselves at the edges of that area.
flicks cigarette
One or two could be expected, but there are many fires. Are so many people so careless, even when the first fires are already burning?
In recent years in Brazil, iirc around 2024, a lot of fires broke out to the point the smoke covered most of the country, and often reports would appear of people actively lighting folliage on fire. Some even theorized the government wasn't going after those because they'd benefit from the damage. Maybe a similar possibility over in Europe?
I doubt that. The sixth most populous metropolitan area in France and a regional capital was and perhaps still is under threat. In Brazil I think the farmers were lighting fires because it's an easy way to gain land for pastures without having to deal with pesky jungle protection stuff. Just blame it on the big ass fire that suddenly broke out.
Well, not sure you noticed by it's been kind of hot lately.