Reacción a "So far this year, almost 120,000 hectares have been destroyed by fire in Spain – one of the highest figures recorded for this time of year"

July isn’t even over yet, and almost 120,000 hectares have already been ravaged by fire in Spain. Did you expect a summer like this?

“Following the catastrophic season of 2025, 2026 is shaping up to be difficult as well. Last year we had very hot and dry conditions at the start of summer, but a very wet spring and a relatively mild July, which helped to delay the peak of the fires until the extraordinary heatwave in August.

This year, 2026, we’ve had a very wet winter, but a relatively dry spring and a very dry June, meaning that residual moisture has been lost more quickly and the heatwaves we’ve experienced so far are already fuelling the spread of the fires.

In this respect, 2026 is looking more like 2022, which was also one of the worst years for fires in recent decades. That year, an extremely dry winter and a meteorological drought that the spring rains failed to reverse contributed to the wave of fires arriving earlier than in 2025, with around 200,000 hectares burnt by 22 July (according to EFFIS).

What has gone wrong with prevention?

"What is happening now is not just a matter of failures in prevention. Of course, improving prevention is a priority and, although more is indeed being done in this regard in the wake of the latest catastrophic waves of fires, we must demand, as a society, that even more be done. But I believe it is also important to understand that, however effective prevention measures may be, the risk of major fires is increasing.

This is due to a combination of factors: in large parts of Spain today, there is more vegetation and, above all, a greater continuity of fuel, mainly due to the abandonment of traditional land uses in rural areas; furthermore, this vegetation spends more days a year ‘ready to burn’ because of climate change. As I say, we live in a Spain with a higher risk of major wildfires and we must accept this and prepare to minimise the impacts they may bring.”

What is your forecast for the rest of the summer?

“The heatwave we are currently experiencing should end in a couple of days, which would, in principle, provide some respite, at least from a meteorological point of view. As for the rest of the summer, according to the AEMET, it is expected to be warmer than normal, but there is no clear forecast regarding rainfall, and how all this will affect fire activity is unclear at the moment.”