Hundreds of wildfires across Europe have burned at least 1 million hectares, or around 2.5 million acres, since the start of the year. That’s made 2025 the worst year for the continent since official wildfire records began in 2006. In Türkiye, Greece and Cyprus, which saw deadly fires peaking since June, weather conditions that drove the spread of wildfires were made 22% more intense due to climate change, a rapid analysis has found.
World Weather Attribution, a global network of scientists who study extreme weather events, said in its latest analysis that the combination of hot, dry and windy conditions in the eastern Mediterranean was also made 10 times more likely in today’s climate, which has warmed by 1.3° Celsius (2.3° Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times because of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. In the absence of climate change, such extreme wildfire-triggering weather conditions would have happened once every 100 years compared to once every 10 years now.
Between June and July, the eastern Mediterranean faced record-breaking heat waves, and several days of temperatures above 40°C (104°F). Total rainfall during winter months also saw a 14% decline, and the dry heat made it easier for plants to burn while extremely strong northerly winds, called Etesian winds, fanned more fires.
In Türkiye, more than 50,000 people were evacuated as wildfires spread in both rural and urban communities this year. At least 17 people were killed, including 10 firefighters and rescue workers.
More than 32,000 people were also evacuated from Greece as wildfires razed tens of thousands of acres of farmlands, houses and resorts. Fires killed at least three people in August.
In Cyprus, fires burned 12,500 hectares (about 31,000 acres) or 1% of the island, killing at least two people in what was the country’s worst wildfire in more than 50 years.
Although all three countries are in the eastern Mediterranean region, their different geographies mean they face different wildfire challenges, according to WWA. Cyprus is especially vulnerable due to its reliance on aerial support to tackle large fires.
“Today, with 1.3°C of warming, we are seeing new extremes in wildfire behaviour that has pushed firefighters to their limit,” Theodore Keeping, report co-author and researcher at Imperial College London, told Mongabay in a statement. “But we are heading for up to 3°C [5.4°F] this century unless countries more rapidly transition away from fossil fuels.”
But “even destructive events can unlock opportunities to strengthen resilience,” Maja Vahlberg, report co-author and technical adviser to the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said at a press briefing. In Türkiye, for example, the dominant Calabrian pine (Pinus brutia), which is highly flammable and helps wildfires spread, also releases its seeds during high-intensity fires, contributing to future forest regeneration.
Banner image of a firefighter trying to extinguish a wildfire as a helicopter flies over Athens on July 26, 2025, by AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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