Europe Is Heading for a Historic Wildfire Season

Firefighters in France and Spain are racing to contain wildfires inching closer to Bordeaux and Madrid. More than 250,000 people across the two countries have been forced to evacuate, and the European Commission has said that Europe’s firefighting capacity is struggling to keep pace with what is proving to be an intense wildfire year. It’s shaping up to be a record-breaking year for fires in Europe, where the amount of land burned is already creeping up to the 2025 record. For many, it's a warning that Europe is unprepared for its new climate reality—in which fire season brings larger, more intense blazes. Is this the worst wildfire year Europe has ever experienced? This is already the worst year on record for France, with 116,085 hectares (286,852 acres) burned, and 13,566 fires recorded since January, surpassing the 2022 record of 72,000 hectares (177,915 acres) burned, according to the country’s Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.While some fires are burning in Mediterranean regions prone to wildfires, others, like the one near Bordeaux, have been fueled by exceptional drought conditions. “The fires near Bordeaux are quite unusual because they are affecting an Atlantic region, and...