Stormy Weather II

[Roger Webb]

Just returned from Gower....terrific gorse fire one day - the cottage we stayed in was (is!!) on the cliff edge near Rhossili. Smoked out, but no damage done....we phoned the farmer nearby who was unconcerned, as if it happened every day, and said it usually just burned itself out!

BTW S-A, you were a little too correct about the weather being dry!

[oddoneout]

The attached article has me thinking in terms of this particular district. Given that it is heavily (and some would say enviably) wooded, are we at greater risk from fires due to climate change?

http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/136993-uk-met-office-~-climate-change-made-severe-uk-fires-in-2022-six-times-more-likely/

I tend to assume not. There is no open grassland or heath in the vicinity, and our neighbouring woodlands and street trees are nearly all of the temperate deciduous type - although we do have three tall conifers in the garden which would be easily flammable.

In this part of the world we have all the makings of wildfire problems, and indeed 2022 demonstrated that all too well. Large arable fields at certain times of the year contain flammable material, we have large areas of heath and coniferous forest. In addition to the usual risk factors from idiot humans(naked flames, discarded glass etc) an additional headache in the recent spells of very hot weather has been fires arising from agricultural machinery. Machinery can overheat to the point of combustion when used for extended periods in hot weather(very frightening for the driver) but another is when flints are smashed by harvesters and send sparks into dry crop waste. Both can result in very fast moving fires, not least as there is wind movement most days even before the fire itself starts generating it.

[Serial_Apologist]

Just returned from Gower....terrific gorse fire one day - the cottage we stayed in was (is!!) on the cliff edge near Rhossili. Smoked out, but no damage done....we phoned the farmer nearby who was unconcerned, as if it happened every day, and said it usually just burned itself out!

BTW S-A, you were a little too correct about the weather being dry!

I am consistently politically correct, Roger!