This summer’s hot, dry and windy conditions which led to the worst wildfires in Spain in three decades, are not 40 times more likely to occur due to human-induced climate change, according to an analysis by World Weather Attribution.

This international collaboration has conducted over 110 studies examining the impact of climate change on extreme weather events.

An analysis by a team of 13 scientists found that the extreme weather conditions responsible for last month’s fires in northwestern Iberia, including Portugal could happen every 15 years under current climate conditions.

In contrast, these conditions would have been expected only once every 500 years during pre-industrial times, with the climate now 1.3 degree Celsius (34.3 Fahrenheit) warmer.

This summer, forest fires devastated more than 1million hectares across the European Union, with Spain and Portugal accounting for approximately two-third of that area.

The fires resulted in at least eight fatalities, forced thousands to evacuate and disrupted railway and motorway traffic. This crisis coincided with a 16-day heatwave that was the most intense on record.

“The frequency of extreme weather is increasing, but the loss of life and property is preventable”, stated Theodore Keeping, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London.

He emphasised the urgent need for vegetation control in rural areas, particularly on land abandoned by farmers and shepherds. “Ultimately, the world must transition away from fossil fuels”, he added.

The study also revealed that heatwaves of similar intensity could occur every 13years instead of every 2,500 years without human-induced climate change. The researchers utilised the ‘Daily Severity Rating’ (DSR) metric, which incorporates temperature, humidity, wind speed and rainfall to assess wildfire intensity and extinguishing difficulty.

The analysis focused on the 10 most intense days of DSR each year and the hottest days each summer in northwestern Spain and northern Portugal.