On a Wednesday afternoon in August, the moon drew its ancient curtain across the sun, plunging northern Spain and Iceland into brief, breathtaking darkness — a celestial event that has stirred human wonder since before recorded time. Yet this eclipse arrived not into stillness, but into a landscape already strained: Spain still smoldering from its worst wildfire in history, its skies scorched by relentless summer heat, its roads filling with millions of pilgrims chasing two and a half minutes of totality. Across the Atlantic, Iceland prepared for its first such darkness over Reykjavík since th
Total solar eclipse sweeps across Spain and Iceland amid heat, wildfire concerns
Authorities restricted access to 123 viewing sites due to wildfire risks; recent destructive wildfires in Ávila forced evacuation of tens of thousands.