Scientists said human-caused climate change made the hot, dry and windy conditions behind major wildfires in Spain and France far more likely. Their findings underline how rising temperatures are increasing the likelihood of severe fire weather across southern Europe, where drought, vegetation growth and local land management can intensify the danger.

A rapid World Weather Attribution analysis found climate change made Spain’s record-scale fire conditions 20 times more likely and doubled the likelihood of extreme conditions in France. It also estimated that warming over the past 26 years tripled Spain’s severe fire-risk odds and raised France’s by 40%, while a separate study found southern Europe’s extreme fire-weather days have more than doubled compared with previous decades. The rapid analysis had not yet been peer reviewed, although its methods are widely used and may later be published in a peer-reviewed journal.