'High to extreme risk of wildfire' across most of southern Europe
Experts caution that there is a significant danger of wildfires in popular vacation spots throughout much of Southern Europe during the summer season.
The map showing the risk of fires has changed to show dark orange and deep red colors in many areas across Europe, including Portugal, southern France, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, and Turkey.
A scorching heatwave in southwestern Europe is expected to move towards other popular vacation destinations in the east.
The danger of a forest fire is most likely in places such as eastern Spain, southern Italy's 'boot', and some areas of Greece, which are highlighted in black on the map created by the European Union's European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
In Evia, a Greek island close to Athens, residents are being told to leave their homes due to a fire, and in Albania, firefighters are working to put out flames in the coastal town of Shengjin.
In Sardinia, aircraft and helicopters are battling a fire that started last night and has now spread over a distance of 7km, as reported by locals.
An older man passed away in North Macedonia on Monday as a result of a forest fire that has been raging since the beginning of July.
Greek leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated that his country had faced a challenging summer.
"We have a challenging month of August coming up, and it is important that we all remain vigilant," he advised the ministers.
However, despite the high possibility of fires, the actual instances of wildfires are currently limited to smaller regions.
The threat is increasing due to the hot temperatures and dry soils, following a period of above-average temperatures in Europe during spring and early summer. This has led to forests becoming extremely dry and prone to catching fire easily.
Europe's upcoming weather forecast after the intense heat wave.
British people getting ready for their vacations are getting ready for high temperatures tomorrow in Mallorca, Albufeira, Malaga, and other parts of Spain.
People heading to Paris to watch the Olympics can anticipate hot weather with temperatures reaching 36C (96.8F) today. This is around 10C (50F) higher than usual for this time of year. Meanwhile, southern France is expected to experience even hotter weather, with temperatures in the high 30s Celsius.
According to Joanna Robinson, the weather producer at Sky, the hot weather has been consistent in the south-western part of Europe this summer. Currently, Spain, Portugal, and France are facing extreme heatwave conditions.
The hot weather will continue moving towards the east this week, reaching Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece. Temperatures during the day could be 10 degrees Celsius higher than usual, reaching highs in the low to mid forties.
Ms Robinson mentioned that temperatures are expected to be much higher than usual next week in many parts of central and southern Europe, and may even reach further north at times.
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Severe lack of rainfall affecting southern Europe
The severe lack of rain has caused 16% of land in the European Union to experience drought conditions earlier or more intensely.
The severe drought is having the most impact in central and southern Italy, north-western Spain, Greece, and central-western Turkey, drying out crops and rural areas.
In Sicily, an Italian naval tanker delivered 12 million liters of water to the areas that were hit the hardest.
The EU's European Drought Observatory (EDO) reported that while the current amount of land experiencing drought is lower compared to the nearly half affected during the intense heat of 2022, much of the Mediterranean region is still struggling to bounce back from previous years of drought.
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The danger of fires will continue during the summer vacation, as predictions show that Southern Europe is expected to have a hotter and slightly less rainy summer than usual.
Southern Europe experienced wildfires, droughts, and heatwaves even before humans began impacting the climate by burning fossil fuels.
However, climate experts have noted that rising global temperatures can intensify some of the factors that contribute to these severe weather events.
One research study discovered that climate change increased the likelihood of the drought that affected much of the Northern Hemisphere in 2022 by 20 times.
Leading global economies are slowly moving away from the main contributor to climate change, which is the combustion of fossil fuels.
According to a recent study by Ember, renewable energy sources like wind and solar are now more widely used in Europe's electricity supply than fossil fuels.
