Scientists have sounded the alarm over “major intensification” of fire-promoting weather in southern Europe, as large swathes of the continent continue to burn.
Uncontained blazes have swept across Spain and France in recent weeks, scorching more than 120,000 hectares across the two countries, and forcing more than 300,000 people to abandon their homes.
It’s the biggest evacuation effort since World War II, and means the EU is bound for its worst wildfire season on record.
While emergency response systems have helped control some of the spread, a fire four times the size of Paris threatened to surge again in southwest France yesterday (29 July), while three firefighters were killed on the Greek island of Crete.
The bloc’s firefighting capacity is struggling to keep pace with the increasing intensity of the fires, which have become so powerful they have triggered their own thunderstorm.
