BRUSSELS, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Europe's wildfire season has scorched 439,568 hectares so far this year, more than double the 19-year average for this point in the season, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) said on Wednesday.
The tally covers fires larger than 30 hectares detected by the EU's Copernicus Emergency Management Service.
Since Jan. 1, authorities have registered 1,628 such fires, up from 1,089 in the same period last year, with associated carbon emissions estimated at 14.11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, the JRC said in its latest weekly update.
Fire weather risks remain elevated. A seven-day fire weather index outlook for Aug. 11 to Aug. 17 points to "extreme to very extreme" conditions across much of the continent, with particularly severe risk in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, most of France, the Balkans, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Austria and Hungary.
Higher-than-normal fire danger is also expected in Sweden, parts of Norway and eastern Finland, according to the JRC.
Seasonal signals suggest a difficult tail of the season. September temperatures are forecast to run above average across Europe, with the strongest anomalies in France, northern Italy and Hungary, while rainfall is projected to be below average across much of southern and central Europe, as well as France, the Balkans, Poland, Denmark and southern Sweden. ■