Wildfires create fire clouds in Europe

Firefighters battle blazes in Europe - 3rd August 2026

Wildfires are devastating vast areas of France and Spain, forcing the evacuation of 375,000 local inhabitants and holidaymakers. They've been caused by the series of heatwaves that Western Europe's experiencing, brought about by the climate crisis.

42,000 hectares of the Gironde department in France have been set alight. That's four times the area that Paris covers. Wildfires in Spain have already claimed 170,000 hectares, which is 6 times the total area lost the previous year.

While 90 percent of wildfires start due to human actions, the effects of the changing climate are compounding the problem. Europe recorded heavier rainfall this winter, leading to more vegetation growth. Much of this was dried out by low levels of rainfall in spring and the heatwaves that have followed.

Europe's suffering from the fastest rising temperatures of any continent, producing wildfires and floods. The climate crisis has produced a 0.87 degree rise in the average temperature between 2015 and 2025, compared to the 30 years from 1991 to 2020.

The blazes in France are so extreme that they may take months to fully extinguish. It's the first time that wildfires have produced pyrocumulonimbus (PyroCb) clouds over France.

These PyroCb clouds are created by the fire plume rising so high into the atmosphere that the air cools under low atmospheric pressure. They produce thunder, lightning and intense, unpredictable winds, fanning the flames and sparking more fires. This has led NASA to describe them as the "fire-breathing dragons of clouds".

As fires in the Gironde reach within 9 kilometres of the city of Bordeaux, air tankers are dropping a special retardant designed to slow its progress. If the fire threatens Bordeaux, over a million people may need to evacuate.

Operations to extinguish "out of control" wildfires close to Madrid offer a ray of hope. Firefighters there are "cautiously optimistic".