Eclipse draws millions to Spain and Iceland amid heat, wildfire concerns

On a Wednesday in August 2026, the moon's shadow swept across Spain and Iceland, drawing millions of sky watchers into a collision of wonder and vulnerability. Spain, still raw from its most destructive wildfire in recorded history, mobilized tens of thousands of officers and closed hundreds of sites to protect parched landscapes from the careless spark of a crowd. Iceland, meanwhile, prepared for its first total solar eclipse visible from Reykjavík in nearly six centuries — only to face the quiet cruelty of forecast clouds. In this convergence of the cosmic and the human, the eclipse became n