A changing landscape of danger
In 2024, flash floods struck the Valencia region of Spain, claiming more than 230 lives. Civil protection authorities documented the devastation in Utiel and Chiva, where the aftermath revealed a scene of utter ruin. Streets were coated in thick, dark mud that seeped into homes and vehicles. Damaged cars sat idle, and buildings stood in pieces, the landscape unrecognizable from just a few days prior. The destruction evoked memories of the 1998 El Niño rains in northern Peru and the aftermath of the 2015 Nepal earthquake. These moments, once rare and shocking, now echo with alarming regularity.
Meanwhile, northern and central Portugal was gripped by wildfires in September 2024. The blazes claimed nine lives and razed over 100,000 hectares of land. Photographer Gonçalo Fonseca and I visited Albergaria-a-Velha, where scorched trees and charred ruins told the story of a firestorm. The flames had been driven by unseasonably hot temperatures, reaching 30C (85F), dry conditions, and relentless winds. The devastation left a trail of blackened landscapes and empty lots where homes once stood.
Warming trends accelerating
Europe is warming faster than any other region, at a rate twice the global average. Nowhere is this trend more evident than on the Iberian Peninsula, where extreme weather has become a defining feature. The 2017 wildfires in Portugal alone killed 66 people, a tragic reminder of the dangers that lie ahead. These events, once rare, now occur with increasing frequency, and for locals like João Oliveira, a civil protection official in Albergaria-a-Velha, they are no longer unusual at all.
Eleni Myrivili, who now serves as the UN’s global chief heat officer, warned in 2021 that heat would shape the coming decade. At the time, she was newly appointed as Athens' heat advisor, a role that reflected the growing crisis. My reporting that same week highlighted the apocalyptic scenes on the outskirts of the Greek capital, where infernos left nothing untouched. Myrivili’s predictions have already proved true. Each year, heat and fire grow worse, reshaping the lives of those who once thought such events were distant threats.
Greece's experience with climate-driven disasters has now spread to Spain, France, and beyond. In Paris, Angelique Chrisafis, the Guardian’s correspondent, has been tracking the daily toll of the climate emergency. During a recent heatwave, she reported on a 10-year-old boy in the southern suburbs whose classroom hit 40C. The boy's mother described how intense heat made breathing difficult and left her dizzy, a testament to how climate change has already touched even the most everyday aspects of life in Europe.
A decade of intensifying extremes
The Iberian Peninsula has become a proving ground for the climate crisis, where extremes are no longer the exception but a near-annual expectation. Floods, droughts, wildfires, and heatwaves now dominate the news cycle, with little time to breathe between each new disaster. Since the start of the decade, the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent has reported on the Catalan independence movement, the pandemic, and shifting political dynamics. Yet nothing has had such a lasting and painful impact as the climate emergency.
This is evident in the figures: recent wildfires have led to the displacement or confinement of around 330,000 people. These events are no longer unexpected. They are part of a pattern, a new normal that seems to arrive with each passing summer. For João Oliveira, the fires in Albergaria-a-Velha represented a new kind of horror. “The amount of energy the fire created, the damage it did, and the intensity and violence of the fire were something we’d never seen before,” he said. The truth, he realized, is that it won’t be the last time.
The reality is that Spain and France are becoming more like Greece, while London faces conditions reminiscent of the late 90s Mediterranean summers. Heat is no longer a seasonal annoyance but a dangerous, deadly force. As Helena Smith, the Guardian’s Greece correspondent, pointed out, the warnings were always there. The question now is whether the world is ready to take them seriously.