Wildfires in southern Europe; Disaster Hub report

Video & Transcript: "A concentration of heat waves/ worst year on record a full month before fire season ends" Heating Planet series continues at City of Angels Blog

TRANSCRIPT 0:10 Wildfires ravaging the EU have torched 0:12 more than 1 million hectares this year, 0:14 marking 2025 as the worst year on 0:17 record, a full month before the fire 0:19 season ends. Deadly infernos that have 0:21 emptied out villages and forced farmers 0:23 to become firefighters have engulfed 0:25 four times as much land this year as the 0:27 average for the same period over the 0:28 past two decades, according to official 0:31 data that was updated on Friday and may 0:33 be revised further. 0:38 [Music] 0:42 Please. 1:01 The fires have charred homes, blackened 1:04 forests, and choked far-off cities. Data 1:06 from the European Forest Fire 1:08 Information System, which goes back to 1:10 2003, shows 1,15,024 1:13 hectares have burned this year, breaking 1:14 the previous record of 988,544 1:18 hectares that was set in 2017, with 1:20 weeks of dangerous fire weather still to 1:22 come. The destructive blazes have pumped 1:24 out 37 million tons of carbon dioxide, 1:27 about as much as the yearly CO2 1:29 emissions of Portugal or Sweden, each 1:31 home to 10 million people. 1:34 Heat. Heat. 2:04 The fires have also broken records for 2:06 this time of year for nine other air 2:08 pollutants, including fine particullet 2:10 known as PM2.5, the experts say make 2:12 wildfires far more deadly than 2:14 previously thought. Christina Santin 2:16 Nuno, a fire scientist at the Spanish 2:18 National Research Council, said the 2:20 perfect conditions for big and dangerous 2:22 wildfires were happening more and more 2:23 because of changes in the climate and 2:25 how people use the land. It is sad and 2:27 scary. My home region is burning right 2:29 now, but not surprising really, she 2:31 said. Wildfires ripped through swaths of 2:33 southern Europe this month as a heat 2:35 wave made longer and stronger by fossil 2:37 fuel pollution pushed temperatures above 2:39 40 C across much of the Mediterranean 2:41 and the Balkans. The drawn out spells of 2:44 blistering heat dried out vegetation, 2:46 which in countries such as Spain and 2:47 Portugal had grown rapidly after a wet 2:50 spring, allowing fires to burn hotter 2:52 and spread farther. 2:55 [Music] 3:33 A concentration of heat waves increased 3:35 the atmosphere's thirst and cured these 3:37 grass and herbs and other fuels, said 3:39 Victor Resco Dios forestry engineer at 3:42 the University of Yeda. This has been 3:44 accompanied by very unstable atmospheric 3:46 conditions leading to the occurrence of 3:48 firestorms. The flames are known to have 3:50 killed more than a dozen people, but 3:52 scientists say the hidden death toll is 3:53 likely to be far greater. Thick clouds 3:55 of smoke will have fouled people's lungs 3:57 with harmful gases and toxic particles 3:59 small enough to seep into the 4:01 bloodstream. A study published in the 4:02 Lancet in December blamed wildfire smoke 4:05 for 111,000 deaths a year in Europe, 4:07 including Russia, between 2000 and 2019. 4:10 On Tuesday, the EU's Capernicus 4:12 Atmosphere Monitoring Service found that 4:14 unprecedented fire activity this year 4:17 had driven Spain's wildfire emissions up 4:19 to the highest annual total in the 23 4:21 years since the records began. Fumes 4:23 from fires across the Iberian Peninsula 4:25 were made worse by smoke drifting across 4:27 the Atlantic from Canada, which has also 4:30 burned badly in recent weeks. Wildfire 4:32 emissions from Spain and Portugal in 4:33 August have been exceptional, said Mark 4:35 Harrington, a scientist with Capernicus. 4:38 The large quantities of smoke and 4:40 especially PM2.5 released into the 4:42 atmosphere have resulted in severely 4:44 degraded air quality locally and further 4:46 a field across the Iberian Peninsula and 4:48 parts of France. 5:19 [Music] 5:24 FS said on Tuesday that fire weather 5:26 conditions were expected to ease across 5:28 across much of southern Europe this 5:30 week, but added that very high to very 5:32 extreme anomalies were expected in 5:33 northwest Europe. Santin said a 5:36 catastrophic wildfire season was 5:38 unlikely every year, but that each year 5:39 the probability of breaking records was 5:41 increasing. It is highly probable that 5:43 the record in 2025 will be broken again 5:46 in a few years, she added. This is a new 5:48 reality, and the sooner we realize it 5:49 and take action to be more resilient to 5:51 these types of wildfires, the better. All Climate Fire departments