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Spain has already burned through 38% more forest this year than at the same point in 2025, and the worst weeks may still be ahead
More than 226,000 hectares have been destroyed since January, with 43 major fires recorded compared to 24 in the same period last year
Spain's wildfire crisis is deepening. Official figures from the Ministry for Ecological Transition show that 226,391 hectares of forest have burned across the country between January 1 and August 11, a 38.2% increase on the equivalent figure for 2025, when around 140,000 hectares had been lost by this point.Forty-three major fires, defined as those affecting more than 500 hectares, have been recorded so far in 2026. At the same stage last year, that number stood at 24.
The Niebla fire in Huelva, which entered its sixth day this week still burning through tens of thousands of hectares with winds making it impossible to extinguish by conventional means, has been one of the most damaging blazes of the season.
The crisis has been building throughout the summer, with successive heatwaves driving conditions that fire crews described as among the most dangerous they had faced in years.
What makes this year particularly alarming is the comparison with 2025, which was itself the worst year for burned land in Spain since 1994, with a total of 354,793 hectares destroyed across the full year. Crucially, the 2025 figures exploded in a two-week period between August 5 and 19, when the burned area jumped from 47,198 hectares to 367,520. Spain is currently in that same window of the year.
Efforts to make forests more resilient to fire are under way in parts of the country, with investment in preventive measures and firebreak infrastructure continuing, but the scale of what is happening this summer underlines how urgent and long-term that work needs to be.
Image wikicommons
