Europe is on Fire: Nearly Half a Million Hectares Burned

Since the beginning of July, the area burned due to wildfires in EU countries has sharply increased, nearing the half-million hectare mark, according to data from the European Copernicus Climate Monitoring Service. Levon Azizyan, director of the Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center, reported this on his social media page.

According to the presented data, as of this week, the total area burned since the beginning of the year has reached 434.9 thousand hectares. For comparison, at the beginning of July, this figure was only 126.8 thousand hectares.

The fires have also been accompanied by record amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, with approximately 9 megatons of CO₂ released into the atmosphere during the week of July 22–29.

Additionally, the week from July 15 to 22 has become the most devastating in the last 20 years of observations, with the area burned exceeding 187.8 thousand hectares for the first time, and the number of individual fires reaching 173, which is also a record-high. Previously, maximum figures were 103.4 thousand hectares and 124 fires.

Europe is currently experiencing one of the strongest heatwaves of recent years. The most affected countries include Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Greece.

French President Emmanuel Macron has stated that the country is facing the highest number of wildfires since the end of World War II. Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has reported that forest fires in Spain have destroyed approximately 150 thousand hectares since the beginning of 2026, resulting in 13 fatalities.