what is this new system put in place to prevent fires?

After beach weather, marine weather, mountain weather, it is now time for forest weather. The latter, which aims to alert the population to the risk of fires starting, will be broadcast daily by Météo France from this Thursday, June 1.

After a summer of 2022 marked by a near-record of burned areas (more than 72,000 hectares of forest), Emmanuel Macron announced the implementation of this new forecasting tool in October 2022. The map will present the degree of risk by department with a color code ranging from green (low) to red (very high) through yellow (moderate) and orange (high).

Weather forest index

The forest weather “will help everyone to be attentive and to better understand any local decisions to prohibit, for example, walks in the forest when the risks are too high”, explained the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu at the end of April. .

The forecasts will be established in collaboration with the National Forestry Office from data such as the dryness of the vegetation, combined with the forest weather index which measures the propensity of fires to spread and intensify according to different parameters. Météo France will base itself on rain, humidity, air temperature, wind strength or the state of dryness of the vegetation, meteorological conditions having a “strong influence on the sensitivity of vegetation to fire and on the spread once the fire is declared”, explains the organization.

A very dry summer

The new indicator aims to encourage citizens to adjust their behavior by adopting the right reflexes to avoid the outbreak of fires, in particular in identified sensitive areas. During the presentation of the device, the minister recalled that 90% of fires are of human origin, and that more than half are caused by “stupid” gestures: a cigarette butt, an unsupervised barbecue, sparks from the grinder .

This tool, unveiled before a summer that promises to be very dry again, is in addition to other preventive measures. At the end of April, the Ministry for Ecological Transition sent 2.3 million leaflets to the homes of people living on the edge of forests and affected by the legal obligations of clearing in force “for decades” but only respected by 30% of them. Satellite maps have also been sent to mayors to point out risk areas in their municipality.

At the same time, a “forest fire weather forecast”, a more precise tool intended for firefighters and authorities, will be extended this summer from 15 to 35 departments, then to 55 in 2024, in particular thanks to the creation of 17 posts dedicated to Météo France .

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