LEGE-CAP FERRET – A shift in the weather brought cautious hope Thursday to wildfire-ravaged southwestern France, where rising humidity, cooler air and the prospect of rain offered possible relief after weeks of blazes that have scorched an area four times larger than Paris.
As Atlantic moisture pushed inland, France’s national weather agency, Meteo France, predicted light rain for Lege-Cap Ferret, a coastal town on a peninsula near the front line of one of the country’s most devastated fire zones.
Officials said the overnight period was “rather calm,” with the fire holding within the 42,000 hectares — roughly 162 square miles — already burned. Even so, emergency operations remained at “total mobilization,” involving 2,200 firefighters and more than 20 aircraft.
Rain arrived early Thursday in Bordeaux, east of the fire zone. But there was no immediate indication that the hardest-hit areas had received enough precipitation to extinguish the flames or soak the sandy soil and dense underbrush in the pine forests that have helped drive the inferno.
Sophie Brocas, the prefect of the Gironde region, said the drop in temperatures offered a reason for measured optimism.
“If that’s confirmed, we could foresee a return to a more normal life for residents, but also for businesses that need to work,” she told reporters late Wednesday.
Authorities said humidity climbed to 80% overnight, though it was expected to fall again by midday. In a morning update, Gironde officials said some rain was forecast along the coast and “could reach the fire zone.”
After temperatures reached about 40 Celsius, or 104 Fahrenheit, the previous day, Thursday’s forecast called for a significant cooldown, with coastal highs near 27 C, or 80 F. An “orange” heat wave warning — one step below the most severe “red” alert — was lifted shortly before daybreak.
The fires in the Bordeaux wine-growing, forested and tourism-heavy region are among the blazes that have swept across pockets of southern Europe in recent weeks, including Spain and Greece.
On Thursday, firefighters were tackling multiple forest fires in four of Turkey’s western provinces, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Blazes in touristic Mugla and Antalya and elsewhere raged overnight as hot weather and strong winds gripped the region. Residents were evacuated as teams with firefighting planes and helicopters battled the fires.
A day earlier, authorities in neighboring Greece said three firefighters had died on the island on Crete, as the wildfire emergency stretched from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean.
At the peak of the evacuations, a third of a million people were driven from homes and vacation sites in France and Spain.
