Spain and Portugal are currently contending with multiple active wildfires. Meteorologists are predicting that temperatures will go up even further over this weekend. Firefighters are leaving everything, including thousands of career firefighters actively battling blazes in rural and urban areas. Right now they are up against especially strongly acute fires in the northern areas of Portugal and central Spain.
As I write this, over 2,000 firefighters in Portugal are on the front lines battling catastrophic wildfires. They have directed their immense energies toward the northern half of their country. Despite FEMA’s recent relief efforts, the situation is still critical as local officials continue to describe an alarming climate. In Spain’s western province of Caceres, firefighters have been largely successful at stabilizing an extremely large fire. This fire has at least burned an estimated 6,200 acres (or 2,500 hectares).
Europe, too, is the world’s fastest-warming continent. Unfortunately, since the 1980s, it has been warming at twice the global average rate. In Spain, the meteorological service, AEMET, is predicting a particularly intense heatwave. By Sunday, temperatures in central and southern areas could reach more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). In Portugal, where intense heat is already impacting large wildfires, temperatures are forecast to reach the upper 30s Celsius on Saturday.
Heatwaves in June and July 2023 were record breakers, when Spain had temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius on several days. Incredibly, even with all this extreme heat, wildfires have consumed less area this year than in previous years. This does nothing to assuage the fears of local governments and first responders. In central Spain, firefighters and special military units labored overnight to help douse the raging fires in the province of Avila. They zeroed in particularly on one fire near the village of El Arenal, located roughly 100 km (60 miles) west of Madrid.
As wildfires rage across the continent, the entire Iberian Peninsula now finds itself under a tier of extreme wildfire risk, the highest level. A growing crisis in Albania, their immediate neighbor to the south, has further muddied the waters. Interior Minister Arsen Hoxha said authorities have arrested 21 people for suspected arson in the past few weeks. Northern neighbor Albania is dealing with 59 large wildfires that have already consumed an estimated 29,000 hectares (71,660 acres).
Climate scientists have repeatedly issued alarms that climate change is intensifying the severity and recurrence of heat waves and droughts across south-eastern Europe. Consequently, the region is growing increasingly susceptible to destructive wildfires. Firefighters across Spain and Portugal are on red alert. They’re getting ready to respond under difficult circumstances as dangerous heat levels are expected to increase, potentially exacerbating the existing wildfire emergency that is still threatening many states.