The second half of July 2026 saw a series of extensive forest fires across southwestern Europe. Particularly severe situations occurred in central Spain, in the Community of Madrid, and in southwestern France, in the Gironde department, west of Bordeaux. In both countries, high temperatures, prolonged drought, and strong winds created conditions that enabled the fires to spread rapidly.
In Spain, the largest wildfire began in mid-July in the Sierra Oeste region, affecting the areas around San Martín de Valdeiglesias and Villa del Prado. Within a few days, the fire had spread across approximately 70,000 hectares, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents and prompting the authorities to declare a state of emergency.
At the same time, in France, west of Bordeaux, a major wildfire broke out in the Gironde department around 23 July and rapidly spread through the region’s pine forests. By 26–27 July, more than 42,000 hectares had burned, and approximately 220,000 people had been evacuated. Sentinel-2 imagery acquired on 26 July reveals extensive areas of burned vegetation as well as active fire fronts.
The Sentinel-2 satellite images presented here illustrate the development of the wildfires in Spain (16 and 26 July 2026 – upper images) and in France (21 and 26 July 2026 – lower images).
The imagery is displayed as a false-colour composite using Sentinel-2 bands 12, 8A, and 4. Shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands are particularly effective for identifying recently burned areas, as these surfaces exhibit high reflectance in this part of the electromagnetic spectrum, allowing the extent of fire damage to be mapped with high accuracy. In addition, the SWIR band provides valuable information on the moisture content of vegetation and soil, making it an important tool for both monitoring wildfire progression and assessing environmental conditions that favour fire spread.
