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Wildfires in Europe: record burning in Spain and Portugal

A record one million hectares - equivalent to about half the land area of Wales - have loteria federal de 13 de agosto 2016burned across the European Union so far this year, making it the worst wildfire season since records began in 2006.

Spain and Portugal have been hit especially hard, with roughly 1% of the entire Iberian Peninsula scorched, according to EU scientists.

The worsening fire season in the Mediterranean has been linked directly to climate change in a separate study by the World Weather Attribution group at Imperial College London.

Experts warn that more frequent and severe fires across Europe are likely to continue in the future.

More than two thirds of the area burned in the EU is in Spain and Portugal alone.

In Spain, more than 400,000 hectares have burned since the beginning of this year up until 26 August, according to the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

This record is more than six times the Spanish average for this time period between 2006 and 2024.

Neighbouring Portugal has also suffered a record burn area of 270,000 hectares so far - almost five times the average for the same period.

The combined burn area across the Iberian peninsula this year is 684,000 hectares - four times the area of Greater London, and most of it burned in just two weeks.

Fires have been concentrated in forested areas of northern Portugal and in Spain's north-western regions of Galicia, Asturias and Castile and León.

Protected areas like Picos de Europa National Park have been impacted, as well as major routes on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage network which usually attracts more than 100,000 visitors in the summer months.

The events have triggered the largest known deployment of the EU civil protection mechanism's firefighting force.

Smoke from fires has dramatically decreased air quality in the area, with southerly wind sending smoke as far as France and the UK.

Climate change makes the conditions leading to wildfires more likely, but in a vicious cycle, the fires also release more planet-warming carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into our atmosphere.

CO2 released by fires in Spain this year has reached a record 17.68 million tonnes, according to the EU. This is more than any total annual CO2 emissions since 2003 from wildfires in that country, when data was first recorded by satellites.

For comparison, it is more than the total annual CO2 emitted by all of Croatia in 2023.

Firefighters have been battling blazes right across Europe this summer.

Climate change caused by humans made fire-prone conditions in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus about 10 times more likely, according to a rapid attribution study by World Weather Attribution group at Imperial College London.

It was responsible for a 22% increase in the extreme weather conditions behind the fires, said WWA.

It is causing more extreme heat, which dries out vegetation, increasing flammability, said Theodore Keeping, wildfire scientist at the centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London.

The continued burning of fossil fuels will lead to more of these extreme fires, the researchers warned.

"It was urgent 10 years ago to stop burning fossil fuels," said Dr Fredi Otto, Professor in Climate Science at Imperial and leader of the WWA, describing it as "lethal for people and ecosystems".

"Today, with 1.3C of warming [since pre-industrial times], we are seeing new extremes in wildfire behaviour that have pushed firefighters to their limit," said Mr Keeping.

The scientists have begun a rapid analysis on the wildfires in Spain and Portugal and expect similar findings related to climate change.

Across Southern and Eastern Europe, rural depopulation is also contributing to the intense wildfires, Mr Keeping added.

In regions like Spain and Portugal, a rising number of young people are relocating to cities in search of more profitable employment. Once-managed agricultural land is being abandoned and becoming overgrown, eliminating fire breaks and increasing the amount of flammable vegetation vulnerable to intense blazes.

Fires have always been an important component of Mediterranean ecosystems and much of the natural wildlife has co-evolved to exist alongside fire.

In fact, species like the Iberian hare benefit from the newly opened habitat and native cork oaks can quickly colonise burned land.

Management techniques such as prescribed burning and vegetation removal have long kept yearly fires in check.

And regrowth of burned vegetation have typically offset the carbon emissions from wildfire as carbon once again became stored in plants and soil.

However, modern wildfires are larger, more frequent and more severe. Where forested regions struggle to regrow before the next fire, they can become part of a climate feedback loop, according to Dr Thomas Smith, Associate Professor in Environmental Geography at the London School of Economics.

"A warming climate is driving more frequent and larger fires, which is in turn driving carbon emissions that remain in the atmosphere, which is leading to a warmer climate," he explained.

The escalating risk from a hotter and drier climate makes fire management more difficult and poses a threat to long-term ecosystem stability.

There are also risks of accelerated soil erosion and water contamination from ashes washed into rivers and reservoirs, according to Professor Stefan Doerr, Director of the Centre for Wildlife Research at Swansea University.

Efforts to manage excess vegetation in fire-risk areas, as well as advances in preventing ignitions, fire detection and fire fighting could help reduce the number and severity of fires in future.

How are wildfires affecting you? Get in touch.

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