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2025 European wildfires concentrated in Northwest Iberia

December 19th, 2025 Leave a comment Go to comments

Approximately 541,000 hectares burned in NW Iberia during August 2025, a month which recorded both the largest burned area and the most extreme fire-weather conditions in the region’s documented history (1985–2025; Fig. 1) [1]. Although this area constitutes only about 2% of the EU, it accounted for roughly 50% of the total area burned across the continent from January to August 2025 [1]

All vegetation types were affected, with shrublands experiencing the greatest impact. Fire exhibited a strong positive selection for shrublands and, to a lesser extent, pine woodlands (Fig. 2). This indicates that these vegetation types burned disproportionate to their relative abundance in the landscape, suggesting they are more flammable. In contrast, oak stands and croplands showed a pattern of negative selection. For an analysis of fire severity specifically in pine plantations, see Repeto et al. [2]

Fig. 1. Top: Monthly burned area (x 1000 ha) in NW Iberia in relation to the monthly Fire Weather Index. Colors indicate the seasons: summer (red), autumn (back), spring (green), and winter (blue). Dotted lines are 95% percentiles. The inset image is the NW Iberia region on August 18th, 2025 from Zoom Earth. Bottom: Monthly burned area in NW Iberia from 1985 to 2025. Modified from [1]
Fig. 2. Burn selectivity in August 2025: black dots show the fraction of burned area for each vegetation class. The red triangles indicate the presence of each class in the study area (i.e., what fraction of that vegetation class would have burned if fires were equally affecting all vegetation classes). Black error bars are 95% confidence intervals estimated through a conservative leave-one-fire-out jackknife. From [1]

References
[1] Sánchez-Hernández G, Turco M, Repeto-Deudero I, Royé D, Baudena M, Montávez JP, Pietroiusti R, Provenzale A, Santin C, Torres-Vázquez MA, Pausas JG. 2025. Record-breaking 2025 European wildfires concentrated in northwest Iberia. Global Change Biol. 31:e70649 [doi | pdf]

[2] Repeto-Deudero I, Ojeda F, Gómez-González S, Miranda A, Cruz-Alonso V, Pausas JG. 2025. The legacy of pine plantations on fire severity. J. Appl. Ecol. 62:3156–68 [doi | pdf]

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