Spring drought brings early start for wildfire season

THE wildfire season is well and truly underway. Firefighters have been battling a blaze at Cannich in the Scottish Highlands that could turn out to be the UK’s largest on record. At the last count it encompassed 30 square miles and could be observed by satellites orbiting the globe.

Closer to home on Tuesday, 30 firefighters and dozens of volunteers worked through the night to dampen down burning peat at Burbage Moor on the Sheffield side of the Peak District. The previous weekend, I went for an evening walk on the moor and spotted lapwing, cuckoos (finally!) stonechat and curlew. It is the peak of nesting season and it is feared the fire may have a devastating impact on wildlife.

The source, according to David Bocking, a journalist who has been reporting from the moor, was a disposable barbecue. While invariably wildfires are started by people doing foolish things, hotter weather and more prolonged periods of drought as a result of climate change create ideal conditions for blazes to spread.

A few decades ago, the wildfire season was largely considered to begin around June and run through to late summer, but experts now say it starts in April and runs until late autumn.

Around the Peak District, as in many other parts of the country, there has been no significant rain since early May and the hills are tinderbox dry. So more moorland blazes are likely to break out in the coming weeks, with plenty of sunshine forecast across the country as high pressure continues to dominate.

Coincidentally, the title of the newsletter that reported the Burbage Moor fire, is “It’s looking a bit black over Bill’s mother’s” – an old English expression that warn of impending rainfall. Much as we need a downpour, however, we shall have to wait a bit longer for one. *