Wildfires and Record Heat Grip Spain and France
Wildfires continued to rage across Spain and France on Friday as a punishing heatwave pushed temperatures towards 44C, with thousands evacuated. A blaze in Spain’s Guadalajara region, one of the country’s largest on record, has consumed some 32,000 hectares north of Madrid, emptying dozens of hamlets, while fires in south-western France have forced holidaymakers from coastal campsites and killed two firefighters this week.
Spain’s weather agency warned that the already high fire risk would climb further as dry thunderstorms and Saharan dust fed the flames, urging “extreme caution”. This summer has scorched the second-largest area on record across the European Union. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has cast the crisis as proof that “climate change kills and destroys wealth in our communities”. For the many Britons holidaying in France and Spain this summer, the fires and extreme heat are a direct hazard. Watch the heat peak and any further evacuations this weekend.