Expert warns Western Europe warming faster than global average as wildfire risk escalates

BARCELONA, Spain, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Western Europe is warming faster than many other parts of the world, fueling more frequent heatwaves and creating conditions for increasingly severe wildfires, a Spanish climate expert told Xinhua in an interview on Friday.

As Spain entered its fourth heatwave of the summer at the end of July, with temperatures forecast to reach up to 42 degrees Celsius in many areas, Ruben del Campo, spokesperson for Spain's State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), said that the country had experienced exceptionally high temperatures in both June and July.

According to AEMET, June 2026 was Spain's second-hottest and third-driest June since national records began in 1961.

The extreme heat has been accompanied by a spate of wildfires, forcing nearly 200,000 people to evacuate their homes in Spain and southern France so far this summer as forest fires continued to spread.

"Some studies show that Western Europe -- including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal -- is warming faster than many other parts of the world, and that we are also more prone to heatwaves," del Campo said.

According to the AEMET spokesperson, countries around the Mediterranean "are among the most vulnerable to heatwaves under the new climatic conditions." He noted that temperatures in parts of Spain had already reached 35 degrees Celsius by the end of May.

The World Meteorological Organization said in July that Europe as a whole has warmed by around two degrees Celsius since the historic heatwave of 1976. It attributes the sustained rise in summer temperatures largely to climate change, a conclusion del Campo shares.

"There is a clear link with climate change. A rise in average temperature always leads to an increase in episodes of extreme heat, and this is exactly what we are seeing," he said.

High temperatures, low relative humidity and strong winds have created conditions conducive to wildfires across Europe this summer. Major blazes have ravaged parts of central Spain, including areas near Madrid, and southwestern France, particularly around Bordeaux.

"The heat begins earlier, and the lack of rain means summer droughts also begin earlier. This means that forest vegetation, especially fine grasses and shrubs, dries out more intensely and quickly. When a fire breaks out, this dry organic matter burns violently and rapidly, making the fire difficult to control from the outset," del Campo said.

He warned that the wildfire threat is likely to persist throughout August as temperatures are expected to remain high and weather conditions continue to favor large fires. "For meteorological reasons alone, fire management will have to adapt to these longer and hotter summers."

By the end of July, wildfires had burned almost 180,000 hectares in Spain, about six times the 29,817 hectares recorded over the same period in 2025, according to Spain's Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. ■