Atmospheric conditions prone to extreme wildfire development: a modeling study for the July 2022 heatwave in the Iberian Peninsula

In July 2022 the Iberian Peninsula was affected by an extreme heat wave, leading to multiple maximum temperature records. Extreme wildfire events also impacted northwest Spain under these conditions, with several fires exceeding 10,000 ha burned, some of them developing pyroconvection. Here we analyse, with the use of observations and the WRF-Fire coupled atmospheric-fire model, how the atmospheric environment have influenced the development of these extreme wildfire events, considering their ignition, spread and fire-atmosphere coupling. The results show the potential for these particular meteorological conditions to support the development of highly chaotic and severe fires that pose a challenge to suppression efforts.