French government launches forest fire warning app
On Friday, France's president Emmanuel Macron met with firefighters to discuss forest fire prevention and launched the new météo des forest app and website, which gives daily information about localised wildfire risk.
Macron visited Nîmes in southern France to discuss forest fire preparation on Friday, as the government launched its new forest fire prevention tool - Météo des fôrets (weather forecast for the forests), which gives real-time information about the risk of fires.
It was first published early afternoon on Friday, June 2nd, according to Le Monde, on the Météo France website and the Météo-France mobile app.
Screenshot from the Météo France website of the new Météo des fôrets tool
The device will offer a map of France, giving a degree of risk for each area ranging from green (low-risk), yellow (moderate risk), orange (high-risk) to red (very high risk), but it does not provide information about ongoing forest fires.
The risk is calculated, according to Météo France, by considering "several meteorological parameters (temperature, rainfall, wind strength, air humidity) and the state of dryness of the vegetation".
The météo des forets is expected to at least until the end of September, and it will be updated in the afternoon or early evening each day. Two maps will be made available - the first will show risk levels for the day following, and the second will show risk levels for the days after.
Part of the goal is to help limit the number of people entering forests during periods of high-risk - in 2022 it was estimated that 90 percent of the forest fires were started by humans, most accidentally.
The Elysée said that the tool will "enable every French citizen to know the level of risk in the department where he or she lives" and "remind people to take the right precautions".
Government officials have warned that the summer 2023 will be "extremely difficult, potentially at least as difficult as the summer of 2022".
READ MORE: Wildfire prevention: The legal obligations for French property owners
The summer of 2022 was a terrible year for wildfires across Europe, with France particularly badly hit. In total an area seven times the size of Paris burned and more than 19,000 wildfires were recorded.
During Macron's visit to the Gard - a part of southern France particularly prone to wildfires - the president is also expected to discuss plans for forest fire prevention with key actors at the civil security air base in Nîmes.
The base Emmanuel Macron will be visiting lost a pilot, France Chesneau, who died while fighting a forest fire in August 2019.
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Macron visited Nîmes in southern France to discuss forest fire preparation on Friday, as the government launched its new forest fire prevention tool - Météo des fôrets (weather forecast for the forests), which gives real-time information about the risk of fires.
It was first published early afternoon on Friday, June 2nd, according to Le Monde, on the Météo France website and the Météo-France mobile app.
The device will offer a map of France, giving a degree of risk for each area ranging from green (low-risk), yellow (moderate risk), orange (high-risk) to red (very high risk), but it does not provide information about ongoing forest fires.
The risk is calculated, according to Météo France, by considering "several meteorological parameters (temperature, rainfall, wind strength, air humidity) and the state of dryness of the vegetation".
The météo des forets is expected to at least until the end of September, and it will be updated in the afternoon or early evening each day. Two maps will be made available - the first will show risk levels for the day following, and the second will show risk levels for the days after.
Part of the goal is to help limit the number of people entering forests during periods of high-risk - in 2022 it was estimated that 90 percent of the forest fires were started by humans, most accidentally.
The Elysée said that the tool will "enable every French citizen to know the level of risk in the department where he or she lives" and "remind people to take the right precautions".
Government officials have warned that the summer 2023 will be "extremely difficult, potentially at least as difficult as the summer of 2022".
READ MORE: Wildfire prevention: The legal obligations for French property owners
The summer of 2022 was a terrible year for wildfires across Europe, with France particularly badly hit. In total an area seven times the size of Paris burned and more than 19,000 wildfires were recorded.
During Macron's visit to the Gard - a part of southern France particularly prone to wildfires - the president is also expected to discuss plans for forest fire prevention with key actors at the civil security air base in Nîmes.
The base Emmanuel Macron will be visiting lost a pilot, France Chesneau, who died while fighting a forest fire in August 2019.
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