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Climate

Europe burns in bad years

Forty-five fire seasons in the five Mediterranean countries EFFIS has recorded without a break since 1980. The dashed step is each decade's average, and it falls. The worst years don't: 1985 and 2017 still stand level. Tap or hover a band; tap a country to pull it out.

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Reporting coverage grows across the record — 5 countries filed in 1980, 29 in 2024. The added band is aggregate reporting, not fire arriving somewhere new.

Data & source

Data: EFFIS — European Forest Fire Information System (Copernicus Emergency Management Service / JRC), European Fire Database annual burnt-area report, 1980–2024 · © European Union, JRC open data policy (CC BY 4.0) · fetched —.

Scope and gaps, plainly: these are reported burnt-area totals, compiled by national fire services and harmonised by EFFIS — not a satellite census. Only Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece have filed without a break since 1980; every other country joins the database later, which is why they are aggregated into one band rather than given their own. Reporting practice has changed over forty-five years, so decade-to-decade comparison carries real uncertainty — the step line is a summary of what was reported, not a measured trend. The record ends with the last completed season; there is no partial current year here.