The consequences of Europe’s dry summer continue to emerge as “exceptional” wildfire activity draws on the union’s combined resources.
In another week of high temperatures and little prospect of rain, extreme conditions continue over southern United Kingdom and have expanded over northwestern France, extending through the Alps and into the Balkans.
An estimated 542,926 hectares (1,341,599 acres) have burned throughout the region since the beginning of 2026, according to the European Union’s “Current Wildfire Situation in Europe” report on Aug. 10. This year’s burned area total is just below the record-breaking fire year of 2025, when wildfires burned 631,119 hectares (1,559,529 acres) by the same date even though the 2026’s burned area total briefly eclipsed 2025’s numbers between July 22 and Aug. 9.
Last year – 2025 – was the worst year on record in Europe, and while 2026 is tracking slightly less it still well exceeds the long-term average of the last 20 years (see the blue line on graph below).
Credit: EU Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid
A recent research report released by the EU’s Climate Change Service determined that chronically dry conditions across western and central Europe were conducive to the exceptional wildfire activity, fueled by abundant dried biomass after a wet winter and early spring.
“In France, fires in the Gironde region burned nearly 42,000 ha, the largest area on record for France in the European Forest Fire Information System of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service,” researchers said in the report. “Spain also saw multiple fires, especially in central and eastern regions.”
Daily wildfire emissions were at record levels in France for July 24, according to the report. The nation’s annual total was already the highest ever by the end of July, while Spain ranked its second-highest emissions total ever, behind 2022.
The EU has assembled and deployed an estimated 777 firefighters from 14 countries to support communities where the wildfires are burning. They’re primarily stationed in France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus and stand ready to support brigades if fires overwhelm local resources.”
Research and experiments on airdrops in France began with the first LABEX (LArgage Bombardier d’eau EXperimentation) experiment in 1995.
Following the acquisition of CL-415 waterbombers by the French government, it quickly became apparent that to optimize aerial firefighting, it was necessary to understand the dropping characteristics of the aircraft.
Entente Valabre, the laboratory of the French Securité Civile, oversaw measuring the ground patterns of the French waterbomber fleet.
The aim of the LABEX research is to determine the ground patterns of various water-bombing aircraft and analyze the ground distribution of the released product by application rate class.
Each aircraft comes with a range of dropping programs. To optimize aircraft use in aerial forest fire fighting, it is essential to know the surface areas covered by the different applications – how much area is covered and by what depth of drop.
To complement these experiments at a real scale, with real aircraft, other experiments are carried out to understand and model aircraft drops are conducted. Analysis by Entente Valabre researchers of the airtanker ground patterns show that the product is not deposited uniformly, and is often deposited very irregularly, because of a complex fragmentation process of the liquid column released by the aircraft.
Although the release process seems simple, the fluid dynamics governing the transformation of a liquid block into a cloud of droplets are only partially understood. The droplets can be neither too fine to avoid dispersion and evaporation, nor too large to avoid harsh impacts on vegetation and the ground, resulting in projected objects. Large-scale fragmentation of a drop, which leads to the formation of liquid meteors that take longer to atomize into droplets, is a complex process and its physical origin is unexplained.
DETERMINATION OF GROUND PATTERNS
Ground patterns are evaluated on flat test areas, free of vegetation or covered only with herbaceous vegetation up to a height of 20 centimetres.
The test area dimensions are determined according to the aircraft to be tested and the areas is set up in a grid. The drop patterns are measured by distributing receptacles over the test area, comprising a fixed support and a collection cup designed to catch the liquid. After each test, the cups are hermetically sealed, collected and weighed. Each pattern is then plotted on a predefined scale, corresponding to classes of application rate in litres per square metre per day, or litre/metres².
Various camera views of retardant drops show specific factors that help to determine effectiveness. Photo courtesy of Entente Valabre.
DETERMINING RELEASE EFFICIENCY
The ground-pattern efficiency is primarily related to the application rates obtained, depending on the product released – water or retardant. In the Mediterranean region, under normal conditions of vegetation (10 metric tonnes per hectare), weather (wind less than 60 km/h) and terrain (not generating excessively difficult trajectories or significant turbulence), a rate of 0.8 lm2 is representative of an effective release using long-term retardant, while a rate of 1.6 l/m2 is representative of an effective release using water.
The various ground patterns parameters are:
The length and depth for coverage rates above the representative application rates
The area and product volume above representative application rates
The homogeneity of the ground pattern
The difference between the time the drop hits the ground and the time it totally covers the ground.
Ground pattern extension and concentration levels are not the only release characteristics that can determine the effectiveness of a drop. The speed of the released product can have a considerable influence on breaking fire-induced updrafts during direct attack, on upwind accuracy, or on safety on the ground. All these factors can be qualitatively related to the phases of ground-pattern formation. The three phases – retardant cloud tearing, atomization and dispersion – explain the various stages that take place between the initial break-up of the product cloud and the formation of droplets that have reached their final size. The rheology of the product, the height and speed of the aircraft, and the release system play an important role in these phenomena.
Observation of the drop is very important to assess its effectiveness, and valuable information can be gleaned from camera images. For this reason, a few subjective criteria are selected:
The status of the cloud when it hits the ground and the way it disperses while resting on the ground.
The drop patterns are measured by distributing receptacles over the test area, comprising a fixed support and a collection cup designed to catch the liquid. After each test, the cups are hermetically sealed, collected and weighed.
PRESENTATION OF RESULTS
The ground patterns are presented in the form of summary sheets in which the following are described:
technical flight data (altitude, aircraft speed)
technical loading data (weight, volume)
meteorological conditions
ground patterns characterization.
Following these analyses, recommendations are made regarding the use of different dropping programs for specific firefighting missions, for example initial attack or retardant barrier construction.
EXPERIMENTAL CAMPAIGNS IN FRANCE
Five experimental campaigns have been conducted in France:
A liquid drop in the wind tunnel at the Institut wind de Mecanique des Fluides de Toulouse and computational fluid dynamics of a Canadair CL-415 drop. Images courtesy of Entente Valabre.
LABEX campaigns are time consuming and costly; therefore, it is essential to have a dropping model that can be used to vary, for example, the height of the drop, the wind direction and the characteristics of the product released – questions that water bomber pilots frequently ask to understand and optimize their practice.
With this in mind, a team at the Institut de Mecanique des Fluides de Toulouse is developing a dropping model that has already been tested against results obtained during various LABEX campaigns.
Initially, the approach was based on ground patterns from the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service’s open-access technical reports, which made it possible to study and model the main characteristics of a ground footprint, namely its length, width and density of deposited product.
The use of numerical simulation as a tool for predicting the drop cloud produced by an aircraft appears to be very attractive for gaining access to all the physical mechanisms involved. However, the computing resources available, even at the biggest French and European computing centers, do not currently allow researchers to describe the entire process from the aircraft to the ground.
The three phases – retardant cloud tearing, atomization and dispersion – explain the various stages that take place between the initial break-up of the product cloud and the formation of droplets that have reached their final size.
An approach developed by PhD candidate Corentin Calbrix in his thesis for Universite de Nimes was limited to describing the fragmentation of the released liquid in a zone close to the aircraft, i.e. 10 metres below the aircraft. Computational fluid dynamics studies of the CL-415 and Dash 8 drops were carried out, showing that fragmentation and dispersion in this zone prefigured ground deposition 50 metres below, which could be deduced by extrapolation of the drop cloud envelop. This approach can now be used to study drops by these aircraft under various operational conditions, particularly in the presence of crosswinds, to help interpret the differences in ground patterns observed during LABEX and provide useful information to optimize forest fire fighting.
Frontal and lateral observation of the release during a LABEX is an essential element in assessing the quality of a release. The eye can identify the quality of product fragmentation and dispersion and anticipate the characteristics of the ground pattern. Packages with a higher concentration of liquid are generally easy to observe and are likely to generate areas of higher concentration on the ground, making the ground pattern less uniform and of poorer quality.
The explanation for this fragmentation mechanism is not yet available: Is it a physical instability intrinsic to fragmentation at this scale, or the memory of a disturbance transmitted to the fluid by the release system? To answer this question, studies are underway at the Institut de Mecanique des Fluides de Toulouse combining wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulation.
A one-tenth scale dropping device has been installed in the 2.4 metre diameter wind tunnel, capable of delivering up to 25 m/s of relative wind. The fragmentation of the liquid column is filmed by a high-speed camera at 2,000 frames per second. The first results of the water release show a specific fragmentation mechanism that cannot be explained by literature results at smaller scales.
A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code benchmark is underway to challenge various French and American research codes for the study of this instability; these codes must be able to reproduce wind tunnel experiments before the study of fragmentation at aircraft scale can begin.
Ultimately, understanding the origin of the instability and its modes will lead to proposals for better designs for release systems.
The aim of the LABEX research is to better understand and optimize aerial forest fire fighting. It is essential to know the different firefighting missions of aircraft to provide recommendations on the use of the different drop programs available on each aircraft. Climate change leads to changes in fire behavior, and the missions of firefighting aircraft must be adapted to these new phenomena. The tools and experiments described above will be used to improve existing dropping systems, to validate their operational use, and to assist pilots in the understanding of their practice.
Fires in Europe are raging close to record levels with little prospect of relief in coming days. With temperatures of more than 40C/104F fueling a heatwave in many areas, the fires are driving evacuations across southern European regions including Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and the Balkans.
Active fires across Europe 13 August 2025. Source: European Forest Fire Information System
As at 12 August, a total of 1599 fires larger than 30 hectares/74 acres have been recorded since the beginning of this year. Last year 1089 fires were detected over the same period. The area burnt is 409,220 hectares/1,011,204 acres. Last year in the same period the area burnt was 188,643 hectares/466,147 acres. The year is tracking towards a record season, according to data from the European Forest Fires Information System of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service.
Burnt area in Europe at 12 August 2025.
The long hot summer is set to continue with the fire danger forecast period predicting Extreme to Very Extreme conditions across the whole continent. Most of Portugal, Spain and France are in a particularly dangerous period, but other less fire prone regions are also on alert – southern United Kingdom, and parts of Sweden, Norway and Finland.
Air Tanker 247 scooping water at Castaic Lake December 6, 2017 . Photo by Robert Schwemmer.
The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, announced that by the end of his term in 2027 the country will have replaced their existing fleet of 12 Canadair scooping air tankers and increased the number to 16.
Mr. Macron referred to this as an “emergency air rearmament” after an extremely busy wildfire season this year. He said there would be an investment of 250 million euros for an “unprecedented order” from Canadair. They also plan to acquire two heavy helicopters.
The Head of State warned that this “exceptional summer” “may not be so so” in the future due to climate change, during a tribute ceremony in the village hall of the ‘Élysée, to those involved in the fight against fire.
“For many of you, this summer was a season in hell”, “hell of flames, fatigue, desolation”, he said.
De Havilland Aircraft has purchased the rights to Canadairs, which have not been built for years, although some older aircraft have been upgraded to CL-415T and CL-415 EAF. The company announced in September they would be building a large manufacturing facility east of Calgary, Alberta. They expect to employ 1,500 workers to produce at least three lines of aircraft — DHC-515 (a modernized and upgraded CL-415), DHC-6 Twin Otter, and Dash 8-400 (Q400).
The DHC-515, first teased in 2018, will be assembled in Calgary with deliveries beginning by the middle of the decade.
On September 21 Gérald Moussa Darmanin, French Minister of the Interior, said, “We want to increase the number of Canadair [water scooping air tankers] in our own fleet from twelve to sixteen. But the problem is not to buy them, it is to produce them. Today there are no longer any factories that do so.”
Mr. Darmanin did not mention at that time they intended to replace the existing 12 water scoopers.
A Q400 drops retardant on a fire in France. Reuters.
The number of acres burned this year in France through mid-August, 148,000, is six times the full-year annual average over the last 15 years. Currently there are eight large fires in the country.
In the southwest, the Gironde region south of Bordeaux has been especially hard hit. One of the fires started a month ago and burned 14,000 acres. It was thought to be controlled, but officials said it either “reignited” on Tuesday or arson may have played a role. Since then it has blackened an additional 18,000 acres, destroyed or damaged 17 homes, and prompted about 10,000 residents to evacuate.
It has forced the closure of the A63 motorway, a major route to Spain between Bordeaux and Bayonne.
The difficulty in suppressing the fires is being attributed to record-breaking drought, strong winds, and high temperatures occasionally hitting 104 Fahrenheit in the southwest.
The red areas represent heat detected at wildfires in France in the Gironde region south of Bordeaux during the 31-day period ending August 12, 2022. FIRMS.
International assistance is coming in the form of 65 firefighters from Germany, others from Romania, Austria, and Poland, and water scooping air tankers from Greece and Sweden.
Dozens of firefighters from Romania are assisting France
France has a fleet of nine S-2 air tankers and has purchased six Q400 MR air tankers, with at least four having been delivered.
There is also large fire in the mountainous Serra de Estrela park in central Portugal, where 24,000 acres have burned. It is being fought by about 1,500 firefighters.
The red areas represent heat detected by satellites in Portugal’s Serra de Estrela Natural Park during the 7-day period ending August 12, 2022.
Weather forecast, Europe, for July 18, 2022. WeatherOnlne. For reference, 40C is 104F, and 35C is 95F.
As Western Europe enters its second heat wave in the last 30 days the maximum temperatures are predicted to set records. Residents in the United Kingdom could experience conditions none of them have ever seen as the temperature rises to 104F degrees (40C) or more, prompting officials to issue the first ever red “extreme heat” warning for Monday and Tuesday.
Farther south in Europe, in southwest France on Saturday there were temperature peaks of close to 108F (42C), as the city of Biarritz broke a maximum temperature record. Nearly three-quarters of the country’s population, 45 million people, were affected by red or orange heat alerts in what is the earliest heat wave ever recorded in France.
The hot, dry weather has resulted in numerous wildfires in Britain, Spain, Portugal, and France over the last several days, bringing an earlier than usual start of the fire season. Firefighters in London, yes, London, have dealt with more than 800 vegetation fires since the start of last month to July 12.
Firefighters work on a wildfire in the Bordeaux region of southwest France. AP.
Two blazes near the coastal town of Arcachon in France’s southwest Gironde region have burned more than 24,000 acres since Tuesday. About 3,000 firefighters assisted by firefighting aircraft are battling the blazes in southern France.
On Friday a pilot was killed while working on a fire in Northeast Portugal when an Air Tractor AT-802AF Fire Boss went down near the town of Torre de Moncorvo after scooping water on the Douro river.
Spain is also working on several large fires that have burned tens of thousands of acres. In southern Andalusia, 3,000 people were evacuated after a fire started near the village of Mijas in the province of Malaga. Around 200 firefighters supported by 18 aircraft are assigned to the incident.
BBC weather forecaster Ben Rich.
BBC weather forecaster Ben Rich explained that the current heat wave is caused by the jet stream shifting north and a portion of it breaking off to form a low pressure area west of Portugal, a cutoff low, with south winds pumping heat north into Western Europe including Spain, France and the UK.
Combined drought indicator last 10 days in June, 2022. European Commission’s Drought Observatory..
Much of Western Europe and the southern UK are in drought ranging from warning to alert levels, according to the European Commission’s Drought Observatory. The dry soils allow more surface heating and the result is record-setting temperatures and lower than average moisture in the vegetation, establishing conditions that are conducive to large wildfires with high resistance to control.
The video below is a summary of current wildfires in Western Europe.
Caption from Instagram: “Yesterday carrying #medicalteam with lot of material between Bordeaux, Nancy and Strasbourg- Participating in the national effort against #Covid-19 – For the crew: Two #pilots and two #cabincrew it mean follow precise procedures and be very vigilant…in other words: Stay #professionnal – We want also to mention Our deepest respect and gratitude to the #caregivers #medecins #infirmiers #aidesoignants 🙏🙏🙏 #securitecivile #waterbomber”
The Instagram account for France’s Sécurité Civile recently posted these photos. Above, a Q400 multi-role air tanker is being loaded with personnel and medical supplies for a COVID-19 mission.
Below, a Q400 is seen with two scooping air tankers, CL-415s.
Caption from Instagram: “Milan76 ready for…training today!”
