The 2024 report on forest fires in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, published on Friday 5 December by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, shows that last year’s fire season ended with a total burnt area of 383,317 hectares (see EUROPE 13685/15).
Although this figure is lower than the 500,000 hectares burnt in 2023, it is still higher than the average for the last 17 years (354,185 hectares). The more moderate data can be partly explained by the intermittent rainfall around the Mediterranean in spring and summer.
Data from 2024 shows that the traditional fire season (early June to mid-September) continues to longer. A total of 8,343 fires were reported in the countries covered by the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain were among the worst-affected EU countries, with a cumulative burnt area of 334,940 hectares.
Although most of the fires were small, a series of major fires broke out on the Iberian peninsula in September, burning 100,000 hectares in a single week. The year 2024 also saw fires cause major damage in the Balkans.
Ukraine alone accounts for half of the total area burnt in the countries covered by the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism, with most of the fires occurring along the front lines of the fighting.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/jus (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)