The Czech Republic has been hit by a lightning drought, there is an extreme risk of fires – FAEI.cz

According to the experts who run the FireRisk website and evaluate the fire risk, the most endangered regions include southwestern Moravia, the central and northern parts of southern Bohemia, as well as the strip that stretches from Kolínsk and Nymbursk to the northwest through Prague and Mělník to Litoměřice and Dolní Poohří.

In addition to these areas, the vast majority of the territory of the Czech Republic is at a medium-high risk level, only eastern and northern Moravia, western Bohemia and border mountain areas are better off.

According to bioclimatologist Miroslav Trnka from the Global Change Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic – CzechGlobe, anyone who wants to make a fire not only on St. Philip’s Night should look at the map and proceed with the level of risk in mind. In the most endangered places, it would be ideal not to light the wooden border at all.

“Think about making a fire and don’t burn it, even if the conditions are safe and fire burning is allowed, pour a sufficient amount of water over the campfire after the end and keep an eye on it the next day. The risk will remain high even on Wednesday and Thursday,” pointed out Trnka.

He added that the landscape is a bit “deceiving with the body”, even with fresh spring weather. “Top soil, last year’s leaves, grass and dead wood are very dry for April. This is shown by a network of one hundred and twenty FireRisk monitoring stations, which are located at selected locations in forests throughout the Czech Republic and whose data can be viewed, as well as a model estimate that covers the entire territory,” said Trnka.

Lightning drought

Even in a green spring landscape, fire can get out of control due to a combination of surface dryness, relatively low humidity, high temperature and especially very fresh wind. According to climatologist Pavel Zahradníček from CzechGlobe, a lightning drought hit part of the republic.

“In March, only sixty percent of the precipitation fell against the average, and the small amount of snow could not subsidize the landscape with water. At the same time, the entire period from February was above average in temperature, which contributed to greater evaporation and the onset of a flash drought,” explained Zahradníček.

The risk of fire spreading will not subside even on May 1, on the contrary, it will increase even more. Many people go out into nature on their day off, so according to CzechGlobe scientists, great caution is in order when handling fire. The risk will decrease only on Thursday and especially on Friday, when rain should sprinkle the Czech Republic.

“This week highs will be between 22 and 25 degrees, which will support further drying of potential fuel. We also expect windier weather until Thursday, with gusts over fifteen meters per second on Tuesday. The wind will be strong mainly in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands and in Liberec. On Wednesday, even over twenty meters per second,” said Zahradníček.

Billions in damages

Firefighters go out every year at the turn of April and May to dozens of fires that arise not only during the burning of witches. Last year, there were almost seventy cases, while less than half of the trips were related to Filipino campfires.

The Fire and Rescue Service has published the basic rules for safe firefighting on its website. These include, for example, that the fire pit must be at least 50 meters from the edge of woodland, 100 meters from a stack of straw and also at a safe distance from buildings so that sparks do not ignite the roof.

According to the Czech Association of Insurance Companies, fires cause billions in damages every year, even though there were fewer of them last year. While in 2022 firefighters went to almost 20,390 fires, in 2023 there were approximately three thousand fewer. “Fires have decreased by fifteen percent,” said Vladimír Vlček, general director of the Fire and Rescue Service, at the balance press conference at the end of this year.

For example, Generali Česká pojišťovna paid out more than one billion crowns to its clients for the consequences of fires last year. Other insurance companies also paid out hundreds of millions due to the fires.