The 2022 fire season over Europe

Over the summer of 2022, Europe experienced exceptional wildfire activity, with fires occurring more frequently and intensively, mainly in Spain, France, and Portugal. Together these countries registered more than 470 000 hectares of the total 786 000 burnt area in the European Union, accordingly to the estimates of the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) for this fire season. 

Southern Europe is a widely known climate change hotspot resulting in heatwaves, droughts, and wildfire activity (increase in the number and severity of fires, burnt area, and longer fire seasons) although severe droughts and heatwaves have been expanding and worsening in central and northern Europe, increasing fire risk.

This work aims to evaluate how extreme the 2022 fire season was when compared with the period 1979-2021 over Europe. The proposed methods comprise the analysis of fire-related products and atmospheric variables to evidence the fire-prone weather conditions. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) ERA5 reanalysis dataset of Fire Weather Index (FWI) and air temperature, relative humidity and wind products are used. FWI is part of a dataset from the Canadian Fire Weather Index System, and is defined as a numerical rating of the potential frontal fire intensity, that indicates fire intensity by combining the rate of fire spread with the amount of fuel being consumed. The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) at time-scales of 1 to 6 months was used to assess drought conditions.

Results highlight the new fire dynamics in Europe since climate change effects are leading to new emergent hot spots (central and northern Europe), not so well known as the Mediterranean Basin. This is extremely important to allow the assessment of fire danger activity as well as the characteristics of wildfires and improve the monitoring, planning, and mitigation activities.