Climate change made hot, dry and windy weather conditions that fueled the deadly wildfires in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey 10 times more likely, according to a scientific report out Thursday.
“Without climate change, similar events would only occur about once every 100 years,” said researchers from World Weather Attribution, a group of climate scientists that drafts rapid analyses showing climate change’s role in extreme weather events. But today, with current average global warming of 1.3 degrees Celsius, they are expected about once every 10 years.
The fires were also 22 percent more intense due to human-caused climate change, found the study, which used peer-reviewed methods and models to compare the recent fires to conditions in a preindustrial world.
Since the start of the year, more than 1 million hectares have burned in Europe, making 2025 the worst year of wildfires on record in the region, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.
