Heat and fire generate overlapping problems for much of southern Europe

By Tim Lister, CNN

(CNN) — Nearly 20 people are still unaccounted for after a wildfire ripped through a tinder-dry area close to Spain’s Mediterranean coast on Thursday, according to regional officials.

At least 12 people were killed by the rapidly spreading blaze, and four received severe burns.

The wildfire – near Almeria on the Mediterranean – is the first in Europe this year to claim multiple victims, but just one of several that have claimed thousands of hectares in recent weeks as much of southern Europe endures unprecedented heat.

This week has also seen two widespread fires in France, with one in the Pyrenees forcing the evacuation of 12,000 people, as well as a major fire in central Portugal, with satellite imagery showing plumes of smoke drifting well into the Atlantic.

Summer fires in southern Europe are nothing new, but they are happening earlier in the year and are of growing intensity, according to researchers.

In much of France and Spain, an exceptionally wet winter left a lot of vegetation that quickly turned to tinder as three successive heatwaves sent temperatures into the high-thirties Celsius.

That has led to a spike in the number of larger fires, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

To date this year, the countries of the European Union have seen 314 fires of over 30 hectares each, nearly double the 158 at the corresponding date last year, and the second highest figure since 2016. And as of July 8, they had consumed 160,000 hectares, compared to the average since 2006 of just under 100,000 hectares.

“Very extreme conditions dominate a large area of western and central Europe, with the heaviest concentration across France, Spain and northern Portugal, the Alpine arc extending into northern Italy, the south of the UK and southeast Ireland,” according to EFFIS in a bulletin this week.

Besides the immediate casualties, fires contribute to the amount of carbon dioxide and toxic smoke in the atmosphere, which can have its own deadly consequences. .

Fires in August last year in Spain and Portugal led to more than 2,000 premature deaths from smoke exposure as well as unprecedented spread of fires at night, according to new research by Spanish and US scientists.

The total energy created by those “was similar to the annual energy production of a 1,000 MW nuclear reactor,” the researchers found. The pattern of “big fires getting bigger” is an indicator that fire intensity is increasing, they noted – with rural depopulation also a factor as more land goes untended.

This may have been a factor in the Almeria fire – some victims had tried to escape by car along a track only to be surrounded by flames, according to Spanish officials.

Besides the fire risk, the heat domes that trap high temperatures across Europe are having a cascade of other consequences.

In France, more than 2,000 deaths during the last week of June were attributed to the heat. France saw its hottest day ever on June 24. Deaths rose 29% in the last week of June compared to the week before, according to French health minister Stéphanie Rist, who noted a “clear increase” in deaths among those over 45.

Not surprisingly, more and more households in France are installing air conditioning. Only 24% of French households have air conditioning according to France’s energy transition agency – up from 18% just two years ago, but still far below the roughly 50% seen in neighboring Italy.

But air conditioning units pump heat into the immediate environment, reinforcing what is known as the urban heat island effect, particularly at night.

Higher river temperatures are also affecting France’s nuclear plants, which require water as a coolant. French utility EDF says generation at the Nogent nuclear plant on the River Seine will be reduced from Tuesday, for the second time this summer. Another reactor on the Garonne river in south-western France suspended production as the water temperature hit 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Farenheit).

Europe’s heatwaves this year have also led to sharply reduced crop forecasts, especially for corn (maize.). Grain trade association Coceral has reduced its forecast EU and UK corn output to 52.7 ⁠million tons, down from 57.2 million last month.

The French corn harvest, at less than 10 million tons, is expected to be the lowest in two decades. Coceral also reduced forecasts for barley and wheat production across Europe.

And more tropical weather in southern Europe is contributing to an increase in diseases carried by mosquitos and other insects. A recent Italian study found that between 2013 and 2022, the risk of dengue fever epidemics in Europe rose by 56% compared to 1951–1960.

“Diseases like malaria and dengue, traditionally confined to tropical zones, are now emerging in temperate and urban areas,” the authors said.

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