2007 Forest Fires In Europe Have Already Surpassed Total Burned In All 2006 - AFP

[hatrack]

More of Europe's forest land has already burned this year than in all of last year, the Italian farmers association Coldiretti said Sunday.

As of the end of July, 337,600 hectares (834,200 acres) had gone up in smoke, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), which recorded a loss of 358,500 hectares for all of 2006.

"If you consider that easily more than 20,000 hectares have burned so far this month notably in Greece and Italy, this year is worse than ever," spokesman Paolo Falcioni told AFP.

Greece has been battling multiple forest fires since June, fanned by three heatwaves, the latest this week, and months of drought. Tens of thousands of hectares have gone up in smoke, making this summer's fires the worst in 10 years.

EDIT

http://iup.physik.uni-bremen.de:8084/amsr/arctic_AMSRE_nic.png