2023-08-02 17:56:33
In Greece, Italy, Tunisia and Algeria, the forest is going up in smoke. Fires which add to one of the longest periods of heat wave ever recorded on the Mediterranean rim, where temperatures could approach 45 ° C, at the end of July.
In mid-summer 2023, the area of hectares of forest burned in Europe is 50% higher than the “normal” (2006-2021). A noticeable increase, although lower than in the summer of 2022, when all of Europe was suffocated. Between May and September, the number of hectares devastated was six times higher than “normal”. This coefficient was established at × 6 in Denmark, × 7 in France, and even × 50 in Switzerland.
The slight increase in areas burned this summer across the continent hides significant disparities. In France (× 2), in Switzerland (× 4), in Italy (× 2), and of course in Greece (× 5), the fires are larger than the average of the last sixteen years. Further north, fires are raging in countries that are usually less exposed, such as Lithuania (× 22) or Austria (× 5.5). Only a handful of countries (Sweden, Turkey, Cyprus, the Balkans, Eastern Europe) are currently benefiting from a milder fire season than usual.
These graphs for the year 2023 represent the hectares burned in several European countries and the Mediterranean basin, in . These areas are compared to the average established between 2006 and 2022.
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