A firefighter falls on the ground while working to extinguish a wildfire in San Cibrao das Viñas, outside Ourense, northwestern Spain, on August 12, 2025.
Miguel Riopa | Afp | Getty Images
Record-breaking heat has swept across Europe in recent days, pushing temperatures well beyond 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some areas and fueling regional wildfires.
In France, temperature records were obliterated in Angoulême, Bergerac, Bordeaux, Saint-Emilion and Saint-Girons on Monday afternoon, according to an update from weather forecaster Meteo France.
“Often remarkable, even unprecedented maximum temperatures, often 12 degrees above normal levels, were reached this Monday,” Meteo France said Tuesday in a press release, according to a CNBC translation.
The forecaster said that a heatwave in the southwest was seen spreading to the center-east and northeast of the country through Tuesday and Wednesday.
In Croatia, temperatures climbed to 39.5 degrees Celsius in the Adriatic coastal city of Sibenik and 38.9 degrees Celsius in the popular tourist destination of Dubrovnik earlier in the week.
The temperature records come as scientists warn climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas is the chief driver of the climate crisis.
Europe is meanwhile known to be warming faster than any other continent, at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The EU’s climate monitor has attributed this trend to changing weather patterns, reduced air pollution and the region’s geography, noting that parts of Europe extend into the Arctic — the fastest-warming region on Earth.
People watch the progress of a wildfire in Trancoso on August 11, 2025. In Portugal today firefighters were battling three large wildfires in the centre and north of the country.
Patricia De Melo Moreira | Afp | Getty Images
In Spain, firefighters largely contained a blaze that broke out near to the capital of Madrid on Monday evening. Emergency services said one person caught in the blaze had died.
Nearly 6,000 people were evacuated from their homes in northern, central and southern Spain this week as wildfires raged amid a heatwave predicted to push temperatures up to around 44 degrees Celsius in some parts of the southern European country.
Wildfires have also been reported in Portugal, Croatia, Turkey, Greece, Albania, Montenegro and the U.K. in recent days.
It’s not just Europe suffering from record heat, with temperature records also broken in Canada of late. Temperatures meanwhile soared above 50 degrees Celsius in Iraq, plunging the country into darkness on Monday during a nationwide power outage.