{"id":41989,"date":"2025-09-26T09:07:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T07:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wearewater.org\/?post_type=waw_insight&p=41989"},"modified":"2025-09-26T09:59:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T07:59:47","slug":"wildfires-that-change-the-rules-a-call-for-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"waw_insight","link":"https:\/\/www.wearewater.org\/en-in\/insights\/wildfires-that-change-the-rules-a-call-for-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires that change the rules. A call for collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Firefighters couldn\u2019t believe their eyes. \u201cWe had never seen anything like it. A cloud formed that multiplied the fire, hurling flames kilometres away<\/em>.\u201d It happened on July 24, 2009, in the Els Ports Natural Park in Tarragona, Spain. The fierce wildfire, which burned about 1,140 hectares, left firefighting teams baffled: the situation shifted up to five times in just a few hours, defying all weather forecasts. Erratic winds turned into a deadly trap that claimed the lives of five firefighters caught in the flames. That disaster didn\u2019t fit into any of the existing models; over time, it became a reference point for what Europe today calls a \u201csixth-generation wildfire.\u201d<\/p>\n

This past summer in the Northern Hemisphere has sharpened the profile of this new type of fire. According to the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS<\/a>), around 678,000 hectares burned in the western half of the Iberian Peninsula \u2014403,000 in Spain and 275,000 in Portugal. Most of these fires have now been officially classified as sixth-generation: blazes of extreme virulence that force a complete rethink of both firefighting methods and prevention strategies.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\"We

In the Iberian Peninsula, wildfires have leapt into the sixth Generation: more violent, faster, and spreading in unpredictable ways. \u00a9 Freepick<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

Pyrocumulus, A Common Phenomenon in Sixth-Generation Wildfires<\/h2><\/div>

What sets these fires apart is not only their size, but also their ability to create their own atmospheric dynamics. In several of the major blazes this summer, firefighting crews observed the same phenomenon described by firefighters in Horta de Sant Joan in 2009: the formation of towering clouds\u2014so-called pyrocumulus\u2014that resemble the stormy cumulonimbus.<\/p>\n

These massive convective plumes, until recently associated almost exclusively with volcanic eruptions<\/a>\u2014where the term was coined\u2014operate under very different drivers. Whereas in cumulonimbus clouds it is water vapour that rises, condenses, and ultimately falls as rain, in pyrocumulus it is extreme heat that propels ash, embers, and smoke, generating violent updrafts, erratic winds, and even lightning. The cloud ceases to be a mere by-product of the fire and becomes a generator of fire itself, with movements that defy prediction.<\/p>\n

It is the hallmark of sixth-generation wildfires: they do not merely consume forest mass, but evolve into autonomous meteorological engines that overwhelm any forecast and multiply ignition points at random. Their ferocity is such that, beyond the vegetation cover, they devastate entire towns and force mass evacuations.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\"We

In several of the major blazes this summer, firefighting crews observed the same phenomenon described by firefighters in Horta de Sant Joan in 2009: the formation of towering clouds\u2014so-called pyrocumulus\u2014that resemble the stormy cumulonimbus.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

A Language We Will Have to Get Used To<\/h2><\/div>

To understand the qualitative leap from fifth- to sixth-generation wildfires, it is useful to review the typology defined by experts in recent decades. The following table\u2014designed as a quick reference\u2014summarises knowledge that should be shared with the public:<\/p>\n