
How to live with mega-fires? Portugal’s feral forests may hold the secret - carrozo
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/12/how-to-live-with-mega-fires-portugal-forests-may-hold-secret/
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carrozo
_This fire, as fire scientist Craig Clements would later conclude, had grown
too hot. Instead of slowing the fire, the oncoming dew boiled off the flame
front like water off the rocks of a sauna, sending a pulse of superheated
steam almost to the borders of space. As it pillowed up against the frigid
edge of the earth’s atmosphere, the steam condensed and fell as hail, pushing
a mass of frigid air down on top of the wildfire._

 _In any combustion reaction, more compression means more heat and power: The
downrushing front made the difference between wildfire and blast furnace. On
the video feed from Pedrógão Grande, Castellnou watched the collapsing
downburst depress the fire column horizontally toward the trees, now clogged
with cars. At around nightfall they caught, and within minutes 8 square
kilometers of woodland, packed with fleeing vacationers, burst into flame._

Terrifying.

