Rain Finally on the Way as Welsh Wildfires Burn On
Forecasters say the most changeable week since June is arriving, with rain and cooler air expected after the exceptional heat — though it had yet to reach the fire grounds by midday. Hundreds of soldiers, including Gurkhas, are still helping crews tackle around 14 wildfires in south Wales, with cautious hope of progress on the largest. Overnight temperatures are forecast to fall as low as 3C later in the week.
The turn in the weather, if it delivers, will do what weeks of exhausting work by fire crews could only contain, damping the tinder that has fed a record season of blazes. But relief carries its own risks: heavy rain on scorched, hardened ground runs off rather than soaking in, and officials have already warned of flash flooding in burned catchments. The swing from 38C to single-digit nights within a week is itself a mark of an increasingly erratic climate. For the soldiers and firefighters on the Welsh hills, the forecast is the first good news in a fortnight. Watch whether the rain arrives in useful quantities and whether flood warnings follow the fires.