Өрнөд Европт нүүрлэсэн хэт халалт ойн түймрийн аюулыг нэмэгдүүлэв

Visiting the Guadalajra region on Wednesday following a devastating wildfire, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain had already suffered 22 major wildfires this year.

“We have already reached 100,000 hectares before reaching the most critical period of the year in the fight against wildfires,” he said.

“To put that into perspective, that is the annual average that Spain experienced over the past decade,” he said, adding that more must be done to prevent fires.

In the Guadalajara region, Spain’s worst wildfire this year has burned an estimated 32,000 hectares (79,000 acres).

It started to stabilise on Tuesday after forcing evacuations in 34 municipalities and confinement orders in 14 others.

Castilla-La Mancha’s INFOCAM fire service said residents of five villages had been authorised to return, although other restrictions remained in place.

Spain’s weather agency AEMET said the danger of wildfires remained “very high or extreme” across most of mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands and was expected to increase further in the coming days.

It urged people to “exercise extreme caution” as the ongoing heatwave combined with dry thunderstorms and Saharan dust.

Europe is currently experiencing a severe heatwave, with Spain facing “extraordinary danger” as temperatures are forecast to reach up to 44C, close to its all-time record of 47.6C.

Here’s everything you need to know in five bullet points:

Spain, France and Italy have suffered much of the brunt of this week’s heatwave, but it has also been felt further east.

In Greece, with temperatures forecast to top 41 C (106 F), authorities have banned outdoor work at peak midday sun. In Cyprus, which is also used to high summer temperatures, working outdoors was banned during afternoon hours on Wednesday.

In Skopje, capital of North Macedonia, 11 people were admitted to hospital, three of them with serious injuries, after a storm on Tuesday night felled trees, damaged roofs and caused power outages across the Balkan country, local media reported.

Roads were blocked and some towns left without electricity and water.

In Kosovo, the Hydrometeorological Institute said more storms were expected on Wednesday and warned of possible lightning strikes, damage to the electricity network, power outages, flooding and property damage.

Local media showed roofs being blown away, torrential rain and residents covering their cars with blankets on Tuesday to protect them from hail.

More than 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in southwestern France as a rapidly spreading wildfire scorched through 2,000 hectares of land west of the city of Bordeaux, officials said on Thursday.

Wildfires have burnt more land in Europe already this year than the annual average in the past two decades, data shows, as the world’s fastest-warming continent has endured three stifling, virtually back-to-back heatwaves so far this year.

Five hundred firefighters are battling to control the blaze, the prefecture said, adding that the wildfire was very rough, but that no one has been injured so far.

The wildfire is located near the Arcachon Bay area, a tourist hotspot, and many of those evacuated are tourists staying in camping sites.

The residents of a small village near the major Guadalajara wildfire have recalled the moment they were evacuated as a fire tore through the area.

It felt like “hell was approaching”, the mayor of the Naharros hamlet, Ricardo Antón, told El Pais.

“You see the whole mountain above burning and you hear it right above you. The fire was so fierce it jumped [across] the valley.”

Antonia Molinero, 80, recalled the moment the Civil Guard knocked on her door to evacuate her on Sunday night.

“You don’t have time to react. You think, if I have to leave, then I have to leave,” she said.

Antonio Mier, 20, added: “It’s quite shocking to see everything green your whole life and then suddenly see it so black.”

The vast majority of Spain is at ‘extreme’ risk of a wildfire, according to Spanish forecaster AEMET.

On Thursday, the warnings cover large parts of the countries eastern half, with the rest of the country at ‘very high’ or ‘moderate’ risk.

Going into Friday, the vast majority of the country, carrying the northwestern and southwestern corners, along with parts of the eastern coast, are at ‘extreme’ risk, the forecaster said.