Smoke from wildfires raging for days in France and Spain has reached Greece but at such an altitude as not to cause any public health fears, state ERT television reported Tuesday citing satellite imaging and ground-based monitoring.
According to the head of research at the National Observatory of Athens, Vassilis Amiridis, clouds of smoke from the Bordeaux area of France have been carried west towards the Atlantic Ocean, but also east towards the Mediterranean and Greece.
He said that the hotter a blaze, the higher the smoke is carried into the atmosphere which in turn allows strong winds at greater altitudes to carry it for longer distances.
The blazes have so far fiorced the evacuation of about 330,000 people.
“What we’ve been seeing these days in France and Spain isn’t just a major forest fire incident,” Amiridis told the state broadcaster. “It’s also a serious incident of air pollution.”
