The risk of wildfires is currently high or extreme in summer holiday destinations across most of southern Europe, authorities have warned.
The fire danger map has turned shades of dark orange and deep red across the continent, from Portugal in the west, through parts of southern France, most of Italy, swathes of Croatia and most of Montenegro, Albania, Greece and Turkey.
It comes as a heatwave in south-west Europe is set to spread east to more holiday hotspots.
The risk of a forest fire is highest in areas like eastern Spain, the ‘boot’ of southern Italy and parts of Greece, marked in black on the map produced by the European Union’s European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
On the Greek island of Evia, near Athens, people have been ordered to evacuate from areas near a blaze, while firefighters in Albania battle flames at the seaside town of Shengjin.
In Sardinia planes and helicopters are fighting a fire that broke out last night and now stretches 7km, according to local reports.
On Monday an elderly man in North Macedonia was killed in a forest fire burning since early July.
Members of emergency services work to contain a wildfire in Shengjin, Albania.
Pic: Reuters
A wildfire burns next to a wind turbine near the village of Petries on the island of Evia.
Pic: Reuters
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said his country had been grappling with “a very difficult summer”.
“We still have a very difficult month, August, ahead of us, and obviously we all need to be on high alert,” he told
ministers.
But although the risk of fires is high, actual outbreaks are currently contained to smaller areas.
Active fires between 29-30 July cover a smaller area than that at risk. Pic: EFFIS/ECMWF/FWI
The danger is being fuelled by high temperatures and parched soils, after most of Europe saw above-average temperatures throughout spring and early summer, drying out forests to tinderbox conditions.
Weather forecast for Europe after ‘relentless heat’
Brits preparing for their holidays are bracing for temperatures tomorrow of 37C (98.6F) in Mallorca, 35C (95F) in Albufeira in Portugal’s Algarve, 38C (100.4F) in Malaga and the low 40s Celsius (104F) elsewhere in Spain.
Those off to watch the Olympics in Paris can expect 36C (96.8F) today, about 10C (50F) above average for this time of year, while temperatures in southern France are forecast to reach the high 30s Celsius.
Weather forecast for Wednesday 31 July 2024
Sky’s weather producer Joanna Robinson said the heat has been “relentless across south-west Europe so far this summer, but Spain, Portugal and France are currently experiencing heatwave conditions”.
That heat is on course to spread further east this week towards Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, with daytime heat up to 10C above average, peaking in the low to mid-forties.
“There are signs that temperatures will be well above average next week for much of central and southern Europe, perhaps extending further north at times,” added Ms Robinson.
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Drought bites in southern Europe
All that head has forced more than a tenth (16%) of EU land into early or deeper stages of drought.
It is biting hardest in central and southern Italy, north-western Spain, Greece, and central-western Turkey, parching crops and countryside.
In Sicily, an Italian navy tanker has shipped in 12 million litres of water to the worst affected areas.
The amount of land in drought is much less than the nearly half affected during the very hot summer of 2022, but “most of the Mediterranean region is yet to recover” from previous years, the EU’s European Drought Observatory (EDO) said.
The fire risk is set to continue throughout the summer holidays, with seasonal forecasts putting Southern Europe on course for a warmer and slightly drier-than-average summer.
Southern Europe lived through wildfires, droughts and heatwaves long before humans started to change the climate by burning fossil fuels.
But hotter global temperatures can supercharge some of the conditions for these types of extreme weather, climate scientists have said.
The drought that hit most of the Northern Hemisphere in 2022 was made 20 times more likely by climate change, one study found.
Major economies are gradually shifting away from the primary cause of climate change, the burning of fossil fuels.
Wind and solar have now overtaken fossil fuels in Europe’s electricity supply, according to new research today from thinktank Ember.
