Fire alarm in southern Europe: Your vacation spots are burning down here

Several holiday resorts in Europe are on fire! In the particularly affected region of Andalusia, 12 people died, entire towns were evacuated, and a wave of flames has so far destroyed 6,600 hectares of land – the size of around 9,200 football fields. There are also huge fires in other countries.

Real-time maps from NASA and the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) show that there is currently a high risk of fire in the most popular holiday regions in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Turkey. But in France and Hungary, too, the risk of a fire breaking out increases with every hot day wildfires spread.

Fire causes deaths and missing people

Spain: The risk of forest fires is extremely high in the regions of Andalusia, Catalonia and Valencia. The worst fires are raging near Almería, where there were also many deaths and 23 people are still missing. There are further fires around Barcelona and Madrid. During the day it now gets over 40 degrees, and even at night it hardly cools down. In Portbou on the Costa Brava, the temperature record was 31.9 degrees Celsius at night.

Portugal: There is already a fire around Porto, Lisbon and Faro. The risk of forest fires is also high there. No wonder: everything is bone dry and temperatures reach highs of around 45 degrees.

Italy: The first fires are blazing in Sicily, around Brindisi, Foggia and Naples. The flames have already destroyed 600 hectares of forest in Piedmont. The risk of further fires is also highest there. Up to 40 degrees Celsius is expected in the inland regions.

Mediterranean up to 30 degrees warm

Croatia: Fire also around Split and on the popular Holiday island Korčula. More fires can flare up there. The heat is not only dangerous on land: water temperatures of around 30 degrees were measured in some cases.

Greece: The risk of forest fires is high to very high, particularly on Crete and Naxos, and the first fires are raging in the Attica region. In the sun, the thermometers sometimes show temperatures around 60 degrees Celsius.

Türkiye: Fires around Antalya, Izmir, Derince. The risk of forest fires is also extremely high in this area.

France: Isolated fires already around Paris, huge forest fires in southern France. With the exception of the coastal region, the risk of forest fires is extremely high almost everywhere!

Holiday regions remain hot

Blame the extreme Heat wave is a strong high-pressure area that brings in very hot air from the Sahara. Graduate meteorologist Dominik Jung told BILD: “And it’s getting even hotter. According to calculations by the ECMWF (European Center for Medium-Term Weather forecastnote Red.), the hottest phase in Italy is expected to reach between July 15th and 19th, with peak temperatures of up to 45 degrees in the interior of the country – sometimes even up to the mountainous areas. Temperatures in the south could only fall around July 21st. Jung: “It is not yet certain whether the situation will then really ease or the heat will remain tough. The next 7-10 days remain In the south it is consistently hot and midsummer.“