Firemen battling wildfires in Spain and France yesterday said the risk of more blazes over the coming days was very high, even as a major fire raging in Spain’s central Guadalajara province receded, allowing some residents to return home.
Wildfires have burned more land in Europe this year than the annual average in the past two decades, data shows, as the world’s fastest-warming continent has endured three stifling, virtually back-to-back heatwaves this year.
In France, where two firefighters died on Tuesday as their truck was engulfed in flames in the southwest region of Gironde, authorities urged people to avoid using barbecues in areas hit by heatwaves, stressing that nine out of 10 wildfires start, accidentally or not, as a result of human activity.
In the Western Balkans, the danger has shifted from heatwaves to hailstorms, with several people injured in North Macedonia and eastern Kosovo.
Scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing the intensity of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, while also creating conditions for sudden, destructive storms.
The Reuters Climate Monitor showed the average high temperature across Western Europe is forecast to be 26.6C which is 3 degrees above the normal high for July 22 in the period from 1961 to 1990.
Spain’s worst wildfire this year has burned an estimated 79,000 acres in the Guadalajara region. It started to stabilise on Tuesday after forcing evacuations in 34 municipalities and confinement orders in 14 others.
Castilla-La Mancha’s INFOCAM fire service said residents of five villages had been authorised to return, although other restrictions remained in place.
Visiting the region yesterday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain had already suffered 22 major wildfires this year.
Spain’s weather agency AEMET said the danger of wildfires remained ‘very high or extreme’ across most of mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands and was expected to increase further in the coming days.
While temperatures will ease slightly in some areas today, a dry westerly wind is forecast to drive a fresh surge of heat in Mediterranean regions, where highs of 42 to 44C could be recorded in some areas.
A marked cooldown is expected from tomorrow.
In France, a fire in the southwestern Gironde region devastated 100 hectares between Bordeaux and Cap Ferret.
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