Since the beginning of July, the surface area burned by natural fires in the European Union countries has increased sharply and is approaching half a million hectares, according to the data of the European Copernicus Climate Monitoring Service. This was reported by Levon Azizyan, director of the Center for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring.
"According to the presented data, as of the current week, the total area of burned areas since the beginning of the year has reached 434.9 thousand hectares. For comparison, at the beginning of July, that figure was only 126.8 thousand hectares.
The fires were also accompanied by record volumes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. During the week of July 22-29, about 9 megatons of CO₂ were released into the atmosphere.
In addition, the week of July 15-22 became the most destructive in the last 20 years of observations. During that period, for the first time, the area of burned areas exceeded 187.8 thousand hectares, and the number of separate fires reached 173, which is also a record indicator. The previous maximum indicators were 103.4 thousand hectares and 124 fires, respectively.
Europe is currently experiencing one of the strongest heat waves in recent years. Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Greece suffered the most.
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that the country has faced the largest number of natural fires since the end of the Second World War.
And the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, said that since the beginning of 2026, forest fires in Spain have destroyed around 150,000 hectares of land, and 13 people have become victims of them," he said.
