Wildfires across the European Union have been far more intense than normal in the first seven months of 2026. Fire weather, which describes how hot, dry, and windy conditions make wildfires more likely and harder to control, was 43% more severe than the 20-year average for the same period, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) published on 30 July 2026 by The Guardian's Ajit Niranjan. EFFIS notes the figures may be revised further, and one month of summer still lies ahead.

The amount of land burned has been large. About 435,000 hectares (1,075,000 acres) burned across the EU from the start of the year through late July, roughly triple the recent average. The EU saw about 1,400 fires during that window, more than double the average. The JRC's EFFIS dashboard, as of 29 July 2026, recorded a more precise 434,976 hectares burnt and 1,407 fires detected. That area is more than the total burned by the same date in 2025.

France and Spain have been hit hardest in terms of people affected. July fires in those two countries forced more than 300,000 people from their homes and tourist accommodation. Spain recorded 207,000 hectares burned by late July, nearly five times the average for that time of year but below the levels reached by late July during the 2022 fires. Spain also had its largest wildfire on record west of Madrid in July. France recorded 91,000 hectares burned by late July, breaking the country's full-year record for fires with roughly a month of summer remaining.

In Greece, three firefighters died on Tuesday, 28 July 2026.

The broader context here is a pattern that has been getting worse over several years. In March 2026, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) published findings that 2025 was the EU's most destructive wildfire season on record, with 2,242,195 hectares burned across all territories analyzed by EFFIS. The 2026 season so far, while severe, has not yet reached the total burned area of the full 2025 season. The trend through the first seven months, combined with the higher fire weather severity, suggests the EU is in a period of long-term elevated wildfire risk rather than a one-year spike. It is like a thermostat that has been turned up and stays up, rather than a brief surge that passes.

EFFIS, established in 1998, became part of the EU Copernicus Emergency Management Services in 2015. It works with an Expert Group on Forest Fires that includes experts from 43 countries across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. The system maps fires that may include those set on purpose for vegetation management, meaning the burned-area numbers include both uncontrolled wildfires and planned burns in the same totals.

For officials in charge of protecting the public, the late-July data adds near-term pressure. With France already breaking its full-year burned-area record and Spain's fire count running at several times the average, firefighting resources across southern and western Europe face continued demand heading into August. The displacement of over 300,000 people in July alone adds a logistical challenge that goes beyond burned-area numbers, affecting emergency shelters, local economies that depend on tourism, and cross-border mutual aid arrangements within the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, a system that lets EU countries share firefighting planes, crews, and other emergency resources when one country's own capacity is stretched.