Europe's record heat fuels wildfires from Greece to the Netherlands as UK logs driest July in 200 years
A historic heatwave has left southern Europe battling massive blazes and pushed northern nations into unfamiliar fire territory.
A punishing heatwave tightened its grip on Europe on Monday, driving wildfires across Greece, France and the Netherlands while the UK recorded its driest July in nearly two centuries. In Greece, a blaze west of Athens jumped containment lines as high winds returned, a day after two firefighting helicopters collided in mid-air, killing a Greek and a Danish crew member and hospitalising two others. French authorities began allowing some of the 224,000 people evacuated from a record-breaking fire near Bordeaux to return home, while a second blaze in Provence remained uncontained. Meanwhile, the Met Office confirmed that all of Wales and more than half of England are officially in drought.
The Greek fire, blamed on a faulty power line from a wind farm, has already led to the arrest of two contractors on charges of negligent arson. More than 1,000 residents and holidaymakers have been evacuated from the seaside resort of Porto Germeno and surrounding areas, with over 250 rescued by boat from beaches. "This is a difficult fire that has troubled us," fire service spokesman Yiannis Artopios said, noting that 12 water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters were deployed on Monday alone.
In France, the fire that scorched 420 square kilometres, four times the area of Paris, has been contained, allowing evacuees to return to the Cap Ferret peninsula and the hard-hit commune of Le Porge, where 183 homes were destroyed. Campsites remain closed as a precaution. Further east, about 1,500 firefighters backed by water-dropping helicopters are still reinforcing lines around the Provence fire, which has burned roughly 18 square kilometres and could flare again as winds strengthen.
Provisional Met Office data show England and Wales endured their driest July since 1836. Wales matched its warmest July on record, while England and the UK as a whole posted their second-warmest. The dry spell follows heatwaves in May and June, leaving soils parched and rivers low across much of the country. Water companies are preparing hosepipe bans if rainfall does not return soon.
The European Forest Fire Information System rates the danger as high across parts of the continent through 5 August, including traditionally cooler northern nations. In the southern Dutch province of Limburg, a large forest fire halted train services and forced the evacuation of a campsite due to smoke. The Dutch air force dispatched two Chinook helicopters equipped with water buckets to support ground crews, a rare deployment that underscores how far north the fire season has stretched.
With temperatures forecast to climb further in Greece and high pressure dominating western Europe, firefighters across the continent face a long week. The combination of deeper droughts, longer heatwaves and more combustible vegetation, hallmarks of a continent warming faster than any other, suggests summers like this one are becoming the new baseline rather than the exception.