The EU is burning, record fires: an area larger than the Balearics is in smoke

Europe is burning at unprecedented rates this year.

From 1 January to today, 515 thousand hectares have gone to ashes in the 27 EU countries, an area larger than the entire Balearic archipelago, which is 499 thousand hectares.

This is the highest figure recorded in the last 16 years : we are only in July, yet the average of hectares burned in a whole year from 2006 to 2021 has already been exceeded.

These alarming data are provided by the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) of the European Commission.

The number of major fires stands at 1,946, never so many since 2006 . In Italy, on the other hand, 27,883 hectares have gone up in smoke, more than the average of the last 16 years, 243 large fires.

(Unioneonline / L)