{"id":20075,"date":"2023-02-07T11:27:06","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T14:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/?p=20075"},"modified":"2023-03-21T11:31:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T14:31:37","slug":"wildfires-burning-in-chile-are-among-the-deadliest-in-countrys-record-new-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wildfires-burning-in-chile-are-among-the-deadliest-in-countrys-record-new-scientist\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires burning in Chile are among the deadliest in country’s record (New Scientist)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fires in central and southern Chile, exacerbated by extreme temperatures and megadrought, have led to at least 26 deaths and burned more than 2700 square kilometres<\/em><\/p>\n

By James Dinneen<\/span><\/p>\n

Forest fires burning in central and southern Chile have led to at least 26 deaths and nearly 2000 injuries in what is among the deadliest wildfires on record in the country.<\/p>\n

The fires have burned across more than 2700 square kilometres as of 7 February, according to a release <\/a>from the European Union\u2019s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. More than 1000 homes have been destroyed and 280 fires were still active<\/a> as of 6 February, according to Chile\u2019s disaster response agency SENAPRED.<\/p>\n

Already, that makes this the country\u2019s second-most destructive fire season on record after 2017, which saw thousands of fires burn more than 5700 square kilometres and led to at least 11 deaths.<\/a> Most forest fires<\/a> in Chile burn in January and February at the height of the southern hemisphere\u2019s summer.<\/p>\n

More than 6000 Chilean firefighters have participated in battling the blazes. Brigades from Spain, Mexico and Argentina are also helping to fight<\/a> the fires, along with more than 70 planes and helicopters.<\/p>\n

Extreme temperatures and years of drought have contributed to the scale and intensity of the fires.<\/p>\n

Weather stations in Chile\u2019s Central valley reported record or near record temperatures above 40\u00b0C (104\u00b0F) over the weekend, says \u202aRen\u00e9 Garreaud<\/a> at the University of Chile in Santiago. High temperatures and strong winds are forecast for the coming days. \u201cMeteorology plays against us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Garreaud says the extremely high temperatures are driven by warm, naturally recurring \u201cPuelche winds\u201d blowing from the east, superimposed on a warmer climate. The past decade has been the warmest on record in Chile, says Garreaud. Megadrought in the region \u2013 the past 10 years were the driest on record in Chile \u2013 has also contributed to fires, he says.<\/p>\n

The fires have mainly affected the regions of Maule, \u00d1uble, B\u00edo-B\u00edo and Araucan\u00eda, which together contain most of Chile\u2019s forest plantations. Along with heat and drought, the added fuel load from the plantation trees have also increased the area at risk<\/a> of fire.<\/p>\n

Mark Parrington<\/a> at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Services said the fire\u2019s intensity is reflected by the huge plumes of smoke sent billowing over the Pacific Ocean. The service estimates the fires have so far released 4 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, leading to the highest emissions from some regions in the past 20 years.<\/p>\n

Original publication from New Scientist<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fires in central and southern Chile, exacerbated by extreme temperatures and megadrought, have led to at least 26 deaths and burned more than 2700 square kilometres By James Dinneen Forest fires burning in central and southern Chile have led to at least 26 deaths and nearly 2000 injuries in what is among the deadliest wildfires […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20075"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20078,"href":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20075\/revisions\/20078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cr2.cl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}