According to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis), 659,541 hectares (1.6 million acres) of land burned across the continent from January to mid-August, the most at this time of year since the fires began records in 2006. The figure is 56% higher than the previous record in 2017. Subsequently, 420,913 hectares were burned in the same period and 988,087 were consumed by the end of the year. On current trends, more than 1 million hectares could be lost to fires this year. The total area burned across Europe so far this year is twice the average for the period 2006-2021, Effis data shows, while the cumulative number of fires is more than four times the average over the same period. “The situation in terms of drought and extremely high temperatures has affected all of Europe this year and the overall situation in the region is worrying, while we are still in the middle of the fire season,” said Effis coordinator Jesús San-Miguel. While fire seasons in the EU have historically been “mainly led by countries in the Mediterranean region”, since 2010 fires have been burning in central and northern countries that “don’t normally face fires on their territory”, he told AFP. Spain has been hardest hit so far, having lost 244,924 hectares, followed by Romania (150,528) and Portugal (77,292). More than 60,000 hectares burned in France, half again of the 43,600 lost in all of 2019, its previous record. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The figures were released days after the EU’s atmospheric monitoring service Copernicus (Cams) – which provides the satellite data used by Effis – warned last week that much of western Europe was in “extreme” or “very extreme” fire hazard. The agency said daily total fire irradiance – a measure of the intensity of ongoing fires – was significantly higher in France, Spain and Portugal than average for July and August, while carbon emissions from forest fires broke all records. record in France and Spain. French media reported that the president, Emmanuel Macron, will soon meet with firefighters and officials to discuss strategies against the fire after emergency teams managed this weekend to control a huge fire in the southwestern Gironde region. The Landiras fire, which flared up last week after destroying 14,000 hectares in July, had burned another 7,600 hectares, forcing the evacuation of 10,000 people. But fire crews were still battling the flames in Brittany and eastern Jura. Portugal said on Saturday it had also brought under control a large fire that had been burning for a week in the Unesco-listed Serra da Estrela natural park, and a blaze on the Czech-German border was also extinguished over the weekend. However, in Spain, a wildfire in northeastern Spain was raging on Sunday, destroying about 8,000 hectares and forcing the evacuation of eight villages and 1,500 people in Zaragoza province, authorities said. According to Effis data, the total area of land burned in wildfires so far this year is almost four times the national average of 66,965 hectares for the entire year since 2006, when records began.
