The early 2012 fire season has been characterised by a high number of fires in Europe. Over 100 000 hectares had been consumed by fire by the end of March.

July brought critical fire episodes in Spain and Portugal, which led to a number of human casualties. Fire danger has been very high in southern Europe during the past weeks, in particular in Portugal, Spain, southern France, central and southern Italy (where a large number of fires are still active), the Balkan region, Greece and Turkey.

The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) is monitoring the situation and providing regular forecasts as to the fire danger conditions and near real time estimates of fire damages across Europe. It confirms a slight improvement in the fire danger situation on the 13 August, but shows that fire danger conditions are still very high in the western Mediterranean region, Portugal, Spain and France and that critical fire danger conditions will return to the region by the end of the week.

See the JRC Internet headline of the 13 August 2012 for further details.

• EFFIS - Current situation