Europe is enduring its third heatwave of the summer, with tinder-dry vegetation and high temperatures fuelling blazes from the Iberian Peninsula to France.
Spain and much of Southern Europe face increasingly severe wildfire seasons that scientists have linked to climate change.
Experts say unusually heavy spring rainfall this year spurred vegetation growth across parts of southern Spain, creating abundant fuel that later dried out in extreme summer heat, helping the fire spread rapidly.
The Government of Canada has said wildfire season began more slowly in 2026 than in 2023 or 2025 — the two worst seasons for wildfires — but warned that fires were likely, due to warmer-than-usual temperatures across the country.
Toronto's air quality ranked the worst among major cities globally on Wednesday (July 15) as wildfire smoke from northwestern Ontario blackened skies and spread into the northeastern United States, prompting health warnings and calls for residents to limit outdoor activities.
HOW BAD IS IT THIS YEAR?
As of Thursday (July 16) morning, there were 858 active fires across Canada, including 111 considered out of control, according to government data. Most of the fires were in the central provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
So far, about 2.4 million hectares have burned during this wildfire season in Canada. Climate experts say rising global temperatures are driving an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires around the world.
In Spain, authorities continued work to identify victims of last week's deadly forest fire in the popular holiday area of Almeria, which killed at least 13 people, mostly foreign nationals, and left 10 missing.
French firefighters battled through the night to tackle the blaze that tore through the historic forest of Fontainebleau, home to one of France's best-known royal palaces. At least two people were arrested on suspicion of having started the fire.
WHAT'S DRIVING IT?
Scientists say the Mediterranean region's hotter, drier summers put it at high risk of wildfires. Once fires start, plentiful dry vegetation and strong winds in the region can cause them to spread rapidly and burn out of control.
Climate change exacerbates this risk, by creating hotter and drier background conditions. In the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, that has contributed to the fire season starting earlier in recent years, breaking records for the intensity of fires, and burning more land.
Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning coal, oil and gas, have heated the planet by about 1.3 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times. Europe has warmed at twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
That warmer baseline means higher temperatures can be reached during heatwaves, which climate change is also making more frequent. This has been confirmed by the United Nations' global panel of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Many scientists say climate change is making wildfires more frequent and difficult to combat.
EMERGING CONCERNS
European countries are worried about increasingly frequent heatwaves and record-breaking temperatures, reporting 10,650 excess deaths during the heatwave that engulfed the west of the continent in late June, official data showed.
More frequent wildfires likely linked to climate change mean people will be exposed to wildfire smoke more often. The health effects over multiple seasons are not yet clear.
Researchers are looking into the long-term effects of smoke particles in water supplies, on crops or ingested by livestock; of urban wildfire smoke; of wildfire exposure in utero; and whether wildfire smoke amplifies the adverse effects of extremely hot weather.
Nutrients carried in wildfire smoke may contribute to downwind algal blooms, which has implications for drinking water reservoirs and lake ecology, researchers warn.