2022 Wildfire Season Expected to Be Europe’s Worst

Summary

In the first six months of 2022, wild­fires in Europe have burned four times more land than the annual aver­age from 2006 to 2021, total­ing about 700,000 hectares due to scorch­ing heat­waves and dry soils. Concerns are ris­ing as record-set­ting heat­waves and low soil mois­ture could fuel more intense wild­fires in the peak months of July and August, prompt­ing European offi­cials to take action by pro­vid­ing new fire­fight­ing equip­ment and per­son­nel.

Wildfires have burned four times more land across Europe in the first six months of 2022 than the 2006 to 2021 annual aver­age, accord­ing to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

A com­bi­na­tion of scorch­ing heat­waves across the con­ti­nent and dry soils have cre­ated ideal con­di­tions for com­bus­tion, result­ing in about 700,000 hectares being burned in the first six months of the year. 

By com­par­i­son, roughly 950,000 hectares of wild­fires burned across Europe in all of 2021, fueled by four weeks in late July and early August that saw 400,000 hectares burn in Turkey, Italy and Greece, each record­ing their worst wild­fire sea­son in a decade.

Europe’s olive-pro­duc­ing coun­tries once again have not been spared by the sum­mer blazes, a long-time phe­nom­e­non in the Mediterranean basin, but one that experts believe is being exac­er­bated by the impacts of cli­mate change.

In the year’s first half, 206,277 hectares already have burned across Europe’s 11 largest olive-pro­duc­ing coun­tries. These coun­tries recorded an annual aver­age of 373,785 hectares of wild­fire dam­age from 2006 to 2021.

European offi­cials are espe­cially con­cerned as the worst months for wild­fires rapidly approach. Record-set­ting heat­waves across much of south­west­ern Europe com­bined with abnor­mally low soil mois­ture could fuel European wild­fires in the peak months of July and August.

Academics and envi­ron­men­tal engi­neers are fur­ther con­cerned that the con­ti­nent is enter­ing a vicious cycle, where depleted for­est cover con­tributes to more intense heat­waves and wild­fires which fur­ther deplete for­est cover. 

However, the record wild­fires have spurred European offi­cials into action and seen some of the most at-risk coun­tries receiv­ing new fire­fight­ing equip­ment and per­son­nel. Scientific fore­cast­ing is also help­ing local offi­cials iden­tify the regions with the high­est risk of wild­fires to deploy resources accord­ingly. 

“Last year, we wit­nessed the sec­ond worst for­est fire sea­son on record in the E.U.,” said Janez Lenarčič, the European com­mis­sioner for cri­sis man­age­ment. ​“This served as a painful reminder of the dev­as­tat­ing effect that for­est fires have on the lives of Europeans.”

“With this fleet in place, the E.U. boosts the con­ti­nen­t’s pre­pared­ness to face for­est fires,” he con­cluded.

• Financial Times
• European Commission