What's that smell?

But this is not an extraordinary day.
This year, more than 224 million hectares have already burned worldwide: an area almost the size of Greenland.

The European summer was marked by devastating wildfires in Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Greece, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In total, 0.4% of Europe went up in flames.

Compared to Europe, the three-times-bigger continent of Africa had already seen 4.6% of its landmass fall victim to the flames by September this year. If the past decade is any guide, that share will climb to 6–8% before the year ends.

Central Africa is the most fire-prone region on Earth, and in 2025 it has once again recorded the highest number of fires.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, over 90,000 fires have been recorded. Together with Angola, Zambia, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic, the region counts 214,631 fires in 2025.

Australia is another hotspot: In 2025, satellites have already detected over 25,000 wildfires across the continent.

Other fire-prone regions follow closely: India, Brazil, and the US. Each of these countires recorded around 13,000 wildfires this year.

Countries are scarred by fire in two very different ways. Some face countless small fires that add up to vast losses, while others endure fewer but much larger fires that devastate in a single sweep.

For example, in central Africa many small fires occur because farmers and herders deliberately burn land to clear crop stubble, restore soil nutrients, and renew grazing areas as part of traditional agriculture.

While these burns are essential for local food production, they also come with costs. Widespread burning can dry out soils, reduce water infiltration, and even shift rainfall patterns, pressures that are likely to intensify as farmland expands and populations grow.

Elsewhere, the opposite of small fires holds true:
In Canada, nearly 7,000 wildfires burned about 1,000 hectares on average. Canada's 2025 wildfires have been so devastating as unusually warm and dry conditions dried out vegetation and extended the fire season, creating ideal conditions for massive, intense blazes that spread uncontrollably.

In Portugal, 150 wildfires destroyed about 1,500 hectares each. Their scale is driven by extreme heat and drought that dried out vast areas of vegetation, combined with rural depopulation that left former farmland unmanaged and overgrown, adding fuel for the flames.

The wildfires in South Korea were so devastating because unusually dry weather, strong winds, climate change-driven heat, and dense pine forests created perfect conditions for flames to spread rapidly: 37 fires burned on average about 1,800 hectares.

In Iceland, a single blaze consumed 2,639 hectares, but this, however, was not a wildfire. It was the result of a volcanic eruption.

Whether through countless small wildfires or a few massive ones, some countries lose vast portions of their territory to fire.

The small but numerous fires in Democratic Republic of Congo have already scorched approximately 15% of the country's land area so far in 2025. In Angola, the share is even higher, with almost 20% of the country burned this year.

In central Africa, most recorded fires are small and burn mainly savannas and grasslands, often as part of farming or land management practices.

In Portugal or Canada, by contrast, fewer but far larger wildfires dominate, scorching vast areas of forest and croplands in single events.

No matter whether savannas, grasslands, croplands, or forests are burned, all fires release CO₂ into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

In northern regions, climate-driven megafires release enormous bursts of emissions in a single event. By contrast, in central Africa each fire is small, yet the tens of thousands ignited each dry season still produce significant emissions.

So far in 2025, wildfires have already released 3.51 billion tonnes of CO₂, almost as much as the EU emits in a year, and the total is likely to climb to between 5 and 7 billion tonnes by the year's end.