A record-breaking hot and dry summer has intensified its impact across Europe as of Monday, August 3rd, 2026. In Greece, water-dropping planes are battling a major wildfire west of Athens, where containment lines were breached a day after a midair collision between two firefighting helicopters killed two crew members, a Greek and a Danish national, with two others hospitalized. All four were private operators contracted by the Greek firefighting service.

In France, firefighters near Bordeaux are working to stabilize a blaze in Provence, guarding against flare-ups in an area four times the size of Paris. Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios described the situation as a "difficult fire that has troubled us," noting that 12 water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters were operating in the area.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom is experiencing its driest July in nearly two centuries, attributed to a prolonged heat wave and lack of rainfall, according to provisional statistics from the U.K.'s weather service. The Met Office reported that all of Wales and more than half of England are officially in drought.

Europe continues to warm at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, making it the fastest-warming continent on Earth, according to the European Union's Copernicus climate service. The severity of the wildfires has led to the evacuation of more than 224,000 people in Greece, described by officials as the country's largest civilian evacuation outside wartime.

Sources