We are only mid-July but the observation is already clear: the summer promises to be hot for Europe in terms of forest fires.
And France, already in the grip of violent fires in the South-East and South-West, is unfortunately very concerned.
As figures from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) show, the 2022 season is already exceptionally early, with around 250,000 hectares destroyed by flames in the EU from January 1 to July 9.
This area of burned land is about three times greater than the average measured on the same date between 2008 and 2020.
France and Spain total 40% of land already gone up in smoke
For the moment, this observation mainly concerns France and Spain, which together represent around 40% of the land that went up in smoke in the EU during the first six months of the year.
At the beginning of July, the cumulative area of forests destroyed in these two countries was already four times higher than the reference average for the period 2008-2020.
As the data in our chart suggests, the fire risk is unfortunately set to increase in the coming weeks in Europe, with the wildfire season typically peaking in late July/early August.
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