The growing link between heatwaves and megafires: evidence from southern Mediterranean countries of Europe

José Maria Costa-Saura (), Valentina Bacciu, Costantino Sirca, Onofrio Cappelluti, Donatella Spano and Mario Elia
Additional contact information
José Maria Costa-Saura: University of Sassari
Valentina Bacciu: Foundation Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC)
Costantino Sirca: University of Sassari
Onofrio Cappelluti: University of Bari A. Moro
Donatella Spano: University of Sassari
Mario Elia: University of Bari A. Moro

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2025, vol. 121, issue 15, No 18, 17742 pages

Abstract: Abstract The increasing trend of extreme wildfire events is concerning national agencies at multiple levels because of their potential impacts on ecosystem services and the capacities of emergency management systems. This concern is exacerbated by the increasing occurrence of heatwaves (HWs) which intensify the impacts of concomitant events. Thus, we wanted to assess recent trends on HWs and megafires and the spatial and temporal co-occurrence of these events. We focused on the most fire prone countries in Europe, i.e., Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece, and considered varying fire size thresholds for defining megafires. Our analysis shows that HWs and megafires have increased during the last 16 years, especially those of greater size. Furthermore, the percentage of events occurring under a HW increases when increasing the threshold used for defining megafires. HW intensity emerges as a more important HW characteristic driving megafires occurrence than HW duration. The research’s temporal scope (2008–2023) provides a contemporary view of these relationships, capturing recent changes in both climate and fire regimes. However, it also raises questions about other important factors not captured in the analysis that might drive extreme wildfire occurrence.

Keywords: Heatwaves; Megafires; Extreme wildfire; Climate change; Mediterranean (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-025-07488-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:121:y:2025:i:15:d:10.1007_s11069-025-07488-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-025-07488-6

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().