Bizarre skies and sunsets in France due to smoke from Spanish wildfires

While France is, for the moment, experiencing a respite from wildfires, there are still huge blazes ongoing in Spain and Portugal.

The Iberian wildfires are so vast that smoke has drifted as far as western France and is creating some truly strange effects in the skies. Large parts of western France – from the Spanish border up through Bordeaux to the Atlantic coast and into Brittany – have reported unusual skies.

During the daytime, a grey-orange tinge has been seen in the skies above western France, in the evening the effect of the smoke has created some unusually vivid sunsets.

French weather forecaster Météo France says this is due to a combination of two factors; smoke from the wildfires and sand from the Sahara.

Sahara dust storms are normal for this time of year. When there are strong winds and storms in the Sahara Desert, sand is blown into Europe, where it frequently falls mixed with rain, creating the distinctive ‘dusty rain’ patterns that appear on windows, doors and parked cars.

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But the presence of smoke in the atmosphere also changes the colours in the sky – according to Météo France the smoke particles scatter short wavelengths, such as blue, allowing red and orange tones to predominate.

The below post from Météo France illustrates the daytime ‘orange skies’ over Tourmalet in the French Pyrenees.

Spectaculaire ciel orange ce matin secteur Tourmalet et ailleurs avec les fumées des incendies Espagnols et Portugais en altitude pic.twitter.com/1OxvsfNuhH

— Météo Pyrénées (@Meteo_Pyrenees) August 17, 2025

The map shows the route that the smoke plume took over France on Sunday.

Ce matin, le panache de fumées qui remonte des incendies Ibériques est particulièrement épais (en lumière rasante, au lever du soleil). Il y a également de la poussière du Sahara. pic.twitter.com/SrqJDBbGAr

— Guillaume Séchet (@Meteovilles) August 17, 2025

France has sent firefighting planes to assist in Spain as firefighters battle to contain the blazes.

France experienced its worst wildfire since 1947 earlier this month when a blaze in southern France, between Carcassonne and Narbonne, consumed more than 16,000 hectares of countryside.

The fire is now under control and largely extinguished, but on Monday the whole of the French Mediterranean coastline remains on orange alert, the second-highest alert level, for wildfire risk. 

Wildfire risk map for Monday, August 18 from Meteo France