According to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis), 517,881 hectares have burned in the European Union since the beginning of the year, i.e. just over 5,000 square kilometers. The scorched area is about twice the size of Vorarlberg.
“Even worse than expected”
“The situation is even worse than expected, although we expected temperature anomalies thanks to the long-term forecasts,” said Effis coordinator Jesús San Miguel. The heat wave of the past few weeks is a decisive factor and is “clearly” related to global warming.
If the trend continues, this year could match or even surpass 2017 – the worst year in the EU on Effis records. At that time, almost 990,000 hectares of vegetation (nearly 10,000 square kilometers) went up in smoke, roughly an area the size of Lebanon.
Pictures show the devastating fires in southern Europe:
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France and Spain particularly affected
In the days, fierce fires in particular blazed on thousands of hectares in France and Spain. The situation there has recently calmed down. In southwest France, the fire brigade has been able to stop the further spread of two major fires in the Gironde department since Wednesday. In Spain, the regional government of Aragon spoke on Thursday of a “positive development” in a devastating fire in the municipality of Ateca.
Source: Nachrichten
