Wildfires of unimaginable intensity are now ravaging areas of southern Turkey. According to the reports, the fires now rampaging across tourist areas are many times worse than ever reported.
So far, at least four people were killed by blazes traversing Antalya and Muğla. The blazing wildfires have already forced thousands of vacationers to be evacuated from their hotels. Flotillas of boats rescued scores of vacationers as dozens of blazes were sparked in regions dried to a crisp by an unprecedented summer heatwave. Turkey is recording temperatures reaching almost 50 degrees celsius, and records that have stood for six decades have already been broken.
These devastating fires come in the wake of news from around the world of similar record-breaking temperatures and associated catastrophes. From America to Siberia, scenes of massive destruction warn of a climate catastrophe some scientists predicted decades ago. The image above from the European Space Imagine reveals the area around Manavgat Dam destroyed by fires.
From Turkey, photos of flames engulfing tourists resorts and hillsides reduced to charred topsoil are right out of a Dystopian Hollywood flick. Livestock has been burned alive. Dozens of people have been hospitalized because of inhaling smoke. And the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has published a graphical analysis of the radiating power of these Turkey fires (above).
Reviewing news from around the world, Earth is now blanketed by a haze from out of control wildfires in the Arctic, the American northwest, Canada, Siberia, and scattered blazes across the Mediterranean and Africa. In Italy, Sardina is devastated by unprecedented fires. Canada’s fires have already cost billions and many lives. Here in southeastern Europe, a heatwave like never before is a foreboding of disasters similar to those felt elsewhere around the world. In Athens this morning, the temperature has already reached 95°F, the high is expected to be 104°F later this afternoon.