Wildfire activity in Europe this summer was at its highest level of any year recorded in the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) dataset, which covers the last 23 years.
Noting that June, July and August were marked by ‘intense wildfire activity’ over Europe, with the Iberian Peninsula particularly affected during August, CAMS noted that wildfires in Europe have released 12.9 megatonnes of carbon in the year to date.
This already exceeds the full year total of 11.4 megatonnes of carbon that was recorded back in 2003.
‘Intense wildfire activity’
“Throughout summer there were different regions within Europe that experienced very intense wildfire activity, mostly in the south of the continent,” commented Laurence Rouil, director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.
“The emissions resulting from these wildfires have been the largest for any summer in at least the last 23 years. Given the potential risk that these emissions pose to the air quality locally and across borders in terms of exposure to fine particles and other pollutants, it is fundamental to keep monitoring these events globally and using the resulting data for developing better mitigation and adaptation strategies.”
Rest of Europe
Other than the Iberian Peninsula – where Spain and Portugal comprised three quarters of Europe’s wildfire-related carbon emissions – Türkiye, Cyprus and some Balkan countries also experienced significant fires early in the season.
‘As a consequence, southeast Europe saw one of the most active wildfire seasons in recent years, mainly driven by a series of fires in the Balkans during July,’ CAMS noted.
In addition to wildfires, Europe was also affected by long-range smoke transport from Canada (where wildfire activity was mainly concentrated in British Columbia, Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories), ozone pollution and ‘unusually frequent and intense’ Saharan dust intrusions, which contributed to a ‘a very busy summer’ regarding air pollution monitoring’. Read more here.
