Media contributions
1Media contributions
Title BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester? What the Fact? How Common are Wildfires in the UK? Degree of recognition Regional Media name/outlet BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester Media type Radio Duration/Length/Size 12 minutes [12:10 - 12:12] Country/Territory United Kingdom Date 8/04/25 Description Gail Millin-Chalabi (Earth Observation Scientist at The University of Manchester) was interviewed by Kate Justice for 'What the Fact? and was asked:
How common are wildfires in the UK at this time of year?
Gail responded to say that this is the peak wildfire season in the UK in March/April in the upland moorland areas. However, this year there is obviously a lot more wildfires taking place simultaneously.
She was asked why is that? The interviewer said we know it has been really really dry is that what it is?
Gail responded to say there are a few things that are happening, we get a build up of dry dessicated vegetation from previous years and there hasn't been the green-up of vegetation going into the late spring/early summer. What that means is we have alot of vegetation on the ground with a low Fuel Moisture Content (FMC). With the lovely sunny weather we have had quite windy conditions aswell, when a wildfire occurs, it will fan the flames and increase fire spread. When there are lovely conditions like this people are out and about in these open areas and then that causes potential points of ignition, so often wildfires in the UK are caused by accidental points of ignition such as disposing of cigarette ends, lighting of barbeques which are not properly put out and then that can create a wildfire. Unfortunately we do get arson aswell where people do go out and for whatever reason deliberately set alight to these areas.
So how much contribution is climate change to this sort of surge?
The climate is variable at this time of year, we can get very wet springs in the UK in fact we had one just last year where there wasn't much wildfire activity happening at this time last year. Then we can get these drier sunny springs which is what we are experiencing now and we get an uptick in wildfires. What we are expecting in the future is that we get more of these types of springs. If we look back at the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) run by the Copernicus Programme we are seeing that over that 20 year record where basically they detect fires that are 30 ha or larger, that we are seeing more wildfire activity happening over the last 10 years compared to the previous 10 years.
Is it mostly humans causing these fires, carelessness?
Yes, there isn't natural points of ignition in the UK it is usually the mix of the right climatic conditions and then carelessness.
We have seen the horrific damage and massive fires they have in Australia where it is I guess more of a natural phenomenon because it is so hot and dry there all the time but in the UK what sort of damage are we talking about? How long does it take for an area to recover?
It depends on the type of fire that is taking place if it is a grass fire and it hasn't been too severe, burning across say acid grassland, within the space of a month you start to get the vegetation growing back. However, the severe wildfires that burn down to the peat it can take over a month if there is no downpour of rain for them to be extinguished and truely put out. This is because of burning into organic soil, so when you cannot see those bright orange flames it is still actually smouldering and burning beneath the ground releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
So how much of a threat to the UK are wildfires at the moment in your opinion, as they are happening more in the last 10 years than the previous 10 years and they are causing potential damage is that something we need an awareness campaign about?
Yes, I do think we should be building a nationwide awareness campaign. There are brilliant groups already in place in some areas of the country like FireWise in Dorset and Be FireAware in the Marsden area but we need more of these initiatives and more of a national push to increase awareness about the risk of wildfires, especially at this time of the year, in the spring, with a greater public awareness, to take care when out in open spaces.Producer/Author Kate Justice sits in for Elliott Webb URL https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live/bbc_radio_hereford_worcester Persons Gail Millin-Chalabi
Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms
- Manchester Environmental Research Institute
Keywords
- Climate change
- Wildfires
- Arson
- Accidental ignition
- EFFIS
- Earth Observation
- UK wildfire trends