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\n Published on 28\/08\/2025 – 17:05 GMT+2
\n \u2022Updated
\n 29\/08\/2025 – 13:54 GMT+2\n <\/p>\n
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In Europe, the 2025 wildfire season has broken records for the amount of land burnt. <\/p>\n
More than a million hectares has gone up in flames in the EU so far this year, a larger surface area than the entirety of Corsica. That’s more than four times as much as last year.<\/p>\n
In total, more than 1,800 forest fires have been declared, emitting more than 38 million tonnes of CO\u2082.<\/p>\n
Out of the European Union’s 27 member states, only the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Malta have reported no wildfires. <\/p>\n
At the top of the list, Italy and Romania recorded more than 450 blazes each.<\/p>\n
However, the countries that have suffered the most damage are not necessarily those that reported the most fires.<\/p>\n
Cyprus, for example, reported only three fires, but they were particularly devastating.<\/p>\n
Since the first of January, more than 400,000 hectares have burnt in Spain and more than 260,000 hectares in Portugal. That is equivalent to 3% of Portugal and 0.8% of Spain’s total land mass.<\/p>\n
“Many of the fires we have monitored and observed are occurring where climate anomalies show that it is much drier than average and warmer than average,” Mark Parrington, a scientist at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather, told Euronews.<\/p>\n
“Where hot, dry winds are blowing, any ignition can ignite very quickly on a large scale and become very intense,” Parrington added. <\/p>\n
Climate change fuels fire risk<\/p>\n
Experts have sounded the alarm that climate change is to blame for this year’s more aggressive wildfire season. <\/p>\n
Alexander Held, a fire management specialist at the European Forest Institute, explained that a combination of different factors are needed to spark a fire, including weather conditions, topography, vegetation, biomass and fuel. <\/p>\n
However, Held stressed that “the prerequisite for everything to happen is the weather”. <\/p>\n
“Climate change scenarios provide the perfect envelope for all the other factors to work together to produce a perfect fire day or a perfect firestorm,” Held told Euronews. <\/p>\n
Such conditions are only set to become more common in the future, Held warned, putting strain on firefighting resources. <\/p>\n
“Our fire-fighting system is reaching its limits, and the only thing we can do is prepare the landscape, making it more resilient and better prepared. That way, firefighters will have a chance to work safely and efficiently,” Held said. <\/p>\n
One technique is to reduce vegetation through clearing, grazing or controlled burning. <\/p>\n
Other approaches include agroforestry systems that combine agricultural production and trees in the same location. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 28\/08\/2025 – 17:05 GMT+2 \u2022Updated 29\/08\/2025 – 13:54 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT In Europe, the 2025 wildfire season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[65227,49,48,24803,295,637,10816,66],"class_list":["post-116537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-arms-industry","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-defence","tag-environment","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}