Wildfires burned over 2.7 million acres (1.1 million hectares) across the European Union in 2025, by far the highest burned area total recorded since record keeping began.
The EU’s Joint Research Centre recently released its 2025 analysis wildfires, which found the historic season started early in March, with over 379,000 acres (153,000 hectares) burning.
Intensity gradually increased between March and June before skyrocketing in August when megafires burned across several countries in the Mediterranean, driven by a record-breaking heatwave. Firefighters in Portugal and Spain fought 22 large fires that burnt 1.1 million acres (460,000 hectares), around 43% of the total burnt area across the EU.
The only countries among EU member states that didn’t experience wildfires were Malta and Luxembourg, according to the research centre.
An estimated 7,783 fires burned in the EU, which burned nearly double the average number of burned acres recorded between 2006 and 2024. All-time burned area records were broken in Germany, Spain, Cyprus and Slovakia.
“The 2025 season reflects a clear trend: an earlier start, more frequent and intense heat waves, and fires reaching higher latitudes than historically observed,” the centre’s report said.
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