Since mid-June, roughly 5,400,000 stremmata have burned in the European Union in more than 1,000 fires, a season marked by record numbers as summer draws to a close, according to satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis).
More than 80% of the roughly 6,470,000 stremmata burned in the EU since the start of the year were destroyed by fires that broke out between June 18 and September 2, Effis data show.
The total area burned this summer season is generally larger than the 20-year average. It still falls short of the 2025 record, when fires burned more than 8,000,000 stremmata, and of the summer of 2007, which burned a few hundred thousand stremmata more, according to an analysis by the French press agency based on Effis data going back to 2006.
This year, the most destructive fires broke out mainly in July, even though fires tend to occur more often in August.
Copernicus EMS noted that its latest EFFIS Fire Danger Forecast Anomaly data for September 3 to 9 point to unusual conditions across Europe, with weather expected to be more favorable than usual for fire spread should ignition occur.
Fires of unusual scale
Fires that broke out between July 16 and 22 destroyed about 1,900,000 stremmata of forest, a record for that mid-July week going back to at least 2006, according to Effis’s harmonized weekly data. That single week accounted for roughly 30% of all the area burned since the start of the year.
During that period, three fires broke out in unusually rapid succession: two in Spain and one in France.
In Spain’s Ávila province, near Madrid, a fire on July 22 burned more than 420,000 stremmata. That same day, a massive fire near Bordeaux in the Gironde region destroyed 370,000 stremmata of forest. In August, again in Spain, 440,000 stremmata burned in Huelva province.
In all, four of the fifteen largest fires of the past decade occurred this summer, according to Effis figures.
The north was not spared either
Before July ended, France had already broken its record for area burned in a single year, a record dating back to when these measurements began.
Spain came close to its own record for the comparable period over several weeks, briefly surpassing it in mid-August before the total dropped again.
Greece, Portugal and Italy were all hit by fires, as happens every summer in southern Europe.
Though fewer in number, fires also broke out in the north, including one of historic scale that destroyed tens of thousands of hectares in eastern Belgium, breaking the country’s record for area burned in a single year going back to 2006.
Effis data only account for fires covering at least 300 stremmata. Figures can differ from official national statistics due to differences in methodology, and the final tally continues to be updated as new satellite data comes in.
Extreme drought and extreme heat, both intensified by climate change, have fueled this summer’s destructive fires.
