PARIS (AP) — Heat waves and scant rainfall in Europe have contributed to historic wildfires in France and Spain that have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in one of the continent’s biggest evacuation efforts since World War II.
Rising temperatures later this week could complicate efforts to battle the blazes that have scorched an area four times the size of Paris in southwestern France and are raging near Spain’s capital, Madrid.
Climate data shows Europe is heating faster than anywhere else on earth. The continent has already faced extreme heat events multiple times this year.
Firefighters in Spain have called the blazes so violent that they could not be tackled head on. But the first glimmer of hope emerged Monday in France that the spread of a giant fire in the southwestern Gironde region may have slowed.
Here’s what to know. Climate change makes summers hotter and drier
Europe’s above-average temperatures, with a prolonged heatwave in June, have contributed to drought conditions. Record-breaking temperatures in Western Europe compounded low rainfall levels as the extreme heat drew moisture from vegetation, creating abundant fuel that allows flames to spread faster and burn more intensely.
A study released in June by World Weather Attribution found that the record-breaking heat in recent weeks would not have been possible without climate change.
France’s national meteorological service Météo-France said June was the hottest on record there, averaging nearly 7 degrees above normal, while rainfall was nearly 50% below average.
Spain is used to forest fires in warmer months, but climate change has made its summers hotter and drier. That, combined with the decline in farming and industries that once used forest materials, has turned large swaths of wilderness into a tinderbox.
Wildfires this year surpass previous records
While estimates vary, national and European Union authorities are reporting fires of record scope this year. The EU’s European Forest Fire Information System estimates that over 1,160 square miles have burned in France and Spain.
France’s Interior Ministry says 13,566 fires have swept across over 448 square miles since January, the highest annual figure in the country’s modern records.
Spain’s Minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, said the 591 square miles burned this year is six times the amount that burned through the first half of 2025.
Contributing to this year’s total was Spain’s largest and third-largest fires ever, with a blaze in the rural terrain of Ávila west of Madrid burning over 193 square miles, some five times the area of Barcelona.
Earlier this month, 13 people died in a blaze in southeastern Almeria, Spain’s deadliest fire in recent memory.
Over 300,000 people have been evacuated
