Record heatwave fuels wildfires across the Balkans

Fire crews battled a wildfire on Croatia’s island of Vis as a record heatwave tightened its grip on the Balkans, pushing Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik under red alert and sending four aircraft into the air over the pine forests southwest of Split. In Serbia, the State Hydrometeorological Service forecast temperatures would reach 39C, while in Albania a fire burned many hectares of bushes and olive trees near Klos.

The heatwave, which began on June 20, had already driven hundreds of excess deaths and major disruption across Europe. France recorded 1,000 excess deaths during the event, and the French public health agency counted most of the heat-related fatalities among older people and expected the number to rise. The same surge in heat also strained healthcare systems, disrupted power generation and damaged infrastructure across the continent.

France recorded its hottest day on record on June 24, when the national average temperature reached 30.0C, breaking marks set in July 2019 and August 2003. Spain logged its hottest June days on June 23 and 24, with temperatures above 40C in several places, while red extreme-heat warnings were also in force in parts of the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland.

The event would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change, and soaring night-time temperatures were 100 times more likely than they were two decades ago. Another spike was forecast from July 5 to 6, and the World Meteorological Organization and UN partners were mobilising heat-health action plans for millions of people facing dangerous temperatures across Europe.