Central European droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires in the 21st century: compound events through the lens of media

Droughts, heatwaves and wildfires represent an increasing risk for both human society and the environment. Despite Southern Europe being considered one of the most vulnerable regions, ongoing recent climate change has also negatively impacted the intensity, duration, and impacts of these extreme events in Central European countries. Therefore, here we present a newly compiled database of droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires in the Central European region spanning the 2000–2025 period. The database, primarily based on newspaper and online media reports, provides information about the occurrence and duration of more than 600 extreme events, the affected areas, their impacts, or societal responses. Based on newly available data, a severity index was calculated, and the severity of individual events was assessed according to several key characteristics. Moreover, several cross-border events negatively affecting Central European countries were detected, and their joint impacts were described. Lastly, the database was utilised to identify compound events of drought-wildfire and drought-heatwave. Despite the differences among individual countries (in terms of climate conditions, landscape, population, or GDP), similar impacts and societal responses to extreme events can be observed. Analysis of these compound events revealed several joint patterns (e.g., increased mortality rates, household water supply issues, rising food prices) as well as weaknesses on the international level (e.g., a lack of available firefighting equipment during intensive wildfire periods). The obtained results support the urgent need to develop a monitoring and forecasting tool for the occurrence of drought, heatwave, and wildfire events in the Central European region and implement it in national forecasting services to mitigate the negative impacts of these extreme events.

This research is supported by the OP JAK funding under Grant No. CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004635 “Advanced methods of greenhouse gases emission reduction and sequestration in agriculture and forest landscape for climate change mitigation (AdAgriF)”.