Why are there no forest fires on La Palma despite the large amount of lava and fire? There are many people who ask this question and the truth is that it is something evident that if there is a lava flow that continues to descend from about 1,100 ° C, it is normal that a large fire would occur that would burn everything but why it has not happened?.
The reason why there are no forest fires on La Palma despite the large amount of lava and fire
The answer to why there has not been a major fire on the island of La Palma after the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted lies in the fact that despite having a heat or ignition source (the volcano) there must be another series of conditions for the aforementioned fire to occur.
Dídac Díaz Fababú , forest engineer and firefighting director of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria has been the one who has explained (according to the Osbodigital portal) that the three variables that must be taken into account: temperature, relative humidity and winds do not seem to have fulfilled what is known as the rule of 30:
According to this rule, for a fire to occur once the volcano erupted, these three factors should also have been met:
- More than 30 degrees of temperature.
- Wind at more than 30 kilometers per hour.
- Less than 30% relative humidity.
Apparently at the time of the fire the relative humidity in the air was around 70 or 80% something that makes it impossible for the vegetation to burn since in fact, the fire “goes out by itself”.
The convection core
On the other hand, the so-called “convection core” must also be taken into account, which corresponds to the direction taken by the smoke generated by the descending lava and which is going towards the center of the laundry itself. According to Díaz, in the case of the La Palma volcano it is a ” very stable and powerful nucleus that modifies the topographic winds, those closest to the surface, and directs them towards the volcanic cone and the stream .”
That is why a « tail behavior » is produced, that is to say that the air is being sucked in by the volcano itself, also generating that the winds that occur on the surface are directing the flames towards the volcano, thus facilitating even more the the dreaded forest fires do not occur.
