Even Normally Damp UK Is Burning This Spring

Wildfire burning this past week near Cumbernauld, Scotland

 There's been more of our share of spring wildfires around the world in the winter and so far this spring. 

The latest place to burn: Damp Old England, Ireland and Scotland. Hundreds of brush and wildfires have been burning, and are still burning in the UK. 

Yep, you read that right. 

They've had a stretch of unusually dry weather, and wildfires are burning through vast areas of the UK.  The worst was expected to peak this weekend.

Per a Washington Post report from Friday: 

"Firefighters in Northern Ireland reported nearly 300 wildfires in the week ending Thursday. Many were significant and started intentionally, but then ran rampant under conditions conducive to fire.

One large blaze was ongoing near Glasgow, in southwestern Scotland. It started Thursday and glowed ominously in the hills near the city overnight. Conflagrations were also burning or being tamped out near Galloway in Scotland and Cornwall in England, among other spots."

Extreme wildfire warnings were up in Scotland through Saturday. 

A BBC map showing the many locations of wildfires
this past week in, of all places Scotland. 

A change in the weather is forecast for Great Britain, which might finally bring some rain next week. But ahead of that rain, winds are expected to increase, so the fire danger will get even worse. 

The reason it's been so oddly warm and dry in the British Isles is a blocked weather pattern that has kept warm high pressure sitting over or near the region. 

This has blocked the usual parade of storms and cold fronts from moving eastward off the Atlantic Ocean to spread the usual April showers into England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland

This has led to a spring drought, exacerbated by unusually high temperatures for this time of year. It's been in the 70s on some recent days in Northern Ireland and Scotland.  Usually, high temperatures in that region are in the low to mid 50s during April. 

Climate change might have also had a hand in all this. Spring is the most rapidly warming season in the UK as the world keeps heating up. 

The UK has followed in the footsteps of other areas have exceptionally bad spring wildfire seasons. 

Late March wildfires in South Korea killed at least 24 people and destroyed hundreds of buildings, some of them historic. 

In the United States, damaging forest and wildfires swept through parts of several eastern states, especially in the Carolinas back in March.

Earlier in March, wildfires destroyed hundreds of homes in Texas, Kansas and especially Oklahoma. 

It's spring fire season here in Vermont, too, but we've been lucky so far. True, it hasn't been a nice spring lately, but frequent rain and snowfalls have so far tamped things down. Through April 8, Vermont has only see 13 small brush and wildfires that have burned a total of 8.5 acres. 

Still, we're not out of the woods. Until it green up out there, a few days of dry, windy weather could set things ablaze. In the short term. rain and even a little snow are in the forecast Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.