Overview

• An international World Weather Attribution analysis links human‑driven warming to a roughly 40‑fold increase in the likelihood and about a 30% rise in the intensity of the heat–dryness–wind pattern that fueled the summer fires.
• Ten‑day heatwaves like the period during the fires are now about 200 times more likely and up to 3°C hotter than in the preindustrial climate.
• Events of this severity are expected roughly once every 13–15 years in today’s climate compared with less than once per 2,500 years before industrial warming.
• The 2025 fires resulted in eight deaths, burned more than 175,000 hectares in a week in Spain, and scorched nearly 3% of Portugal.
• Researchers warn that simultaneous large fires across Europe overwhelm firefighting resources and urge vegetation management, restoration of abandoned lands, improved coordination, and faster reductions in fossil‑fuel use.