To prevent fires, the State launches a “forest weather forecast”

2023-04-27 09:25:39

Posted Apr 26, 2023, 12:43 PMUpdated on Apr 27, 2023 at 9:25 am

The State is multiplying educational tools to try to limit climatic disasters. Thus, in addition to prevention campaigns to encourage the French to save water, the government is launching a new “Forest weather report”. The purpose of this device is to alert the population to the risk of fires starting.

This daily bulletin will thus be broadcast by Météo-France from June 1 and until at least the end of September, announced the Minister for Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu. This new forecast map will present the degree of fire risk on a departmental scale. It had already been announced in October by the President of the Republic after a near-record of areas burned in the summer of 2022 with “60,000 hectares of forests gone up in smoke” in France, recalled Christophe Béchu.

To materialize this risk, a color code will be used: it will go from green (low) to black (very high) through yellow (moderate) and red (high). The forecasts will be established in collaboration with the National Forestry Office (ONF). They will compile data such as the dryness of the vegetation with the Weather Forest Index (IFM) which measures the propensity of fires to spread and intensify according to different weather parameters (temperature, wind, humidity, etc.).

Increased risk from global warming

This daily communication during the summer period, alongside the beach weather or the marine weather, is justified by the sharp increase in the risks linked to global warming. The goal is to bring it “into the daily life of the French”, commented the minister.

“It will help everyone to be attentive and to better understand any local decisions to prohibit, for example, walks in the forest when the risks are too high”, explains Christophe Béchu. “90% of fires are of human origin and about more than half come from stupid gestures: cigarette butts, barbecues, grinders…”, he insists.

This tool, unveiled before a summer that promises to be very dry again, is in addition to other preventive measures: “we have just sent 2.3 million leaflets to the homes” of those who live on the edge of forests . These same people are concerned by the legal obligations of clearing in force “for decades” but respected only by 30% of them on average, according to the minister.

Satellite maps must also be sent to mayors to point out risk areas in their municipality. At the same time, a “forest fire weather forecast”, a more precise tool intended for firefighters and the authorities, will be extended this summer from 15 to 34 departments, then 55 in 2024. It remains to be hoped that these means will be sufficient to limit the tragedy of forest fires.

(With AFP)