As firefighters battle the blaze in the south of the continent, England and Wales have declared drought after receiving just 10 percent of the usual rainfall in July.
Europe is grappling with the consequences of a record-breaking hot and dry summer that has fueled devastating wildfires in Greece and France, while the United Kingdom has recorded its driest July in nearly two centuries. Fire services across the continent are on high alert, and thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes.
In Greece, strong winds on Monday evening fanned the flames west of Athens, pushing the fire toward mountain settlements and destroying farms and property. The fire breached containment lines a day after a tragic accident in which two helicopters collided mid-air, killing two crew members, a Greek and a Danish national, with two others hospitalized. All four crew members were private operators contracted by the Greek fire service.
"This is a difficult fire that has unsettled us," said fire service spokesman Yiannis Artopios. Twelve aircraft and 11 helicopters were involved in the firefighting effort on Monday. More than 1,000 people were evacuated from the vicinity of the resort of Porto Germeno and other areas west of the capital, including over 250 people rescued by boats from beaches. The fire is believed to have been caused by a faulty power line from a wind farm, and two contractors have been arrested on charges of causing a fire through negligence.
In France, thousands of evacuees began returning home on Monday after a massive wildfire was brought under control. The fire scorched about 420 square kilometers, an area four times the size of Paris, and is the largest recorded wildfire in the country's history. More than 224,000 people were forced to leave their homes in what authorities described as the largest civilian evacuation in France outside of wartime.
The return included the Cap Ferret peninsula, a popular tourist destination on the Atlantic coast, and the municipality of Le Porge, which was hardest hit, with 183 homes destroyed. Meanwhile, another fire in Provence did not flare up overnight but was still not under control. Around 1,500 firefighters, supported by helicopters, continued to strengthen fire lines around a blaze that has consumed about 18 square kilometers.
While southern Europe battles the flames, the United Kingdom is facing a historic drought. According to provisional data released on Monday by the UK's Met Office, England and Wales have just experienced their driest July since records began. "July 2026 was a truly remarkable month in the UK's climate record," said Amy Doherty, a Met Office science lead. "A combination of record dryness, exceptional heat, and an unprecedented number of sunshine hours."
England received just 6.5 millimeters of rain, only 10 percent of the average for July. Wales recorded 9.3 mm. The situation is particularly dramatic in southern England, where just 1.9 mm of rain fell, or three percent of the average, making it the driest month ever recorded since 1836. London and its suburbs are among 19 English regions that had at most one millimeter of precipitation in July.
The consequences of the drought are far-reaching. "We are seeing the effects on our farmers, our wildlife, and the amount available for public and business use," said Helen Wakeham, chair of the National Drought Group. "The harvest is done and it's only the beginning of August," warned Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers' Union, told Sky News. "This is unimaginable compared to just ten years ago and will be one of the earliest harvests in history." Bradshaw added that yields are a third lower than usual.
"The impact of this on nature and biodiversity, on our birds, bees, and butterflies, is simply unfathomable," warned Ami McCarthy, policy lead at Greenpeace UK. Her colleague Rosie Downes, campaign lead at Friends of the Earth, called for a "stronger National Adaptation Plan" to prepare the UK for "the increasingly extreme weather we can be sure to expect as the planet warms."
Record heatwaves in May and June led to an estimated 2,877 excess deaths in England, the UK Health Security Agency reported last week. The agency issued an amber health alert for four regions, including London, warning of increased risk for people over 65 and those with pre-existing health conditions. According to the European Forest Fire Information System, fire risk remains high across the continent, including in traditionally cooler northern countries. Firefighters in the Netherlands battled a large forest fire on Monday in the southern province of Limburg, where the Dutch air force deployed two Chinook helicopters to assist in the effort.
