By Anders Lorenzen
As many European countries brace for the impacts of yet another heat dome engulfing the continent, Albania is fighting off a cascade of separate wildfires.
Throughout July and August, wildfires have been building up in the Balkan country due to prolonged dry spells, with impacts also felt in the rest of the Balkan territory.
In the last 24 hours, 37 new wildfires have been reported, and 30 separate fires are currently burning.
This has prompted hundreds of 10,000 emergency personnel to be deployed, as well as assistance from neighbouring countries Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the United Arab Emirates, which sent a special team of helicopters to get the fires under control.
It has forced the inhabitants of villages in the regions of Elbasan, Vlora and Berat to be evacuated.
The large number of wildfires has prompted health concerns over air quality due to the extensive smoke plumes.
Near-perfect wildfire conditions
The climate fuelled extreme heat and prolonged drought, combined with strong winds, are the perfect conditions for wildfires to ignite.
The heat and wildfires experienced across the region are linked to the August heat dome, which impacted much of central, eastern, and southern Europe.
Dry and hot summers are not unusual in the Albanian Mediterranean climate, but the trend in recent years has been an intensification of hot spells, extreme warm temperatures, and wildfires, consistent with what climate models forecast. This is aided by the extensive and dry shrubland, pine forests, rugged terrain, and rural areas with mixed land use. Where agricultural terraces have been abandoned, this creates fuel for continuity.
The wildfires currently impacting Albania cover a large portion of the country. The fires are spread widely across Albania, affecting the regions of Dibër in the northern part of the country, Bulqizë, Mallakastër, and Tirana in the central part of the country, and Fier, Finiq, Gjirokastër, Has, and Korçë in the southern part of the country.
Albanian wildfires: The largest impacted areas
In terms of the scale of impact, in the Lurë-Dejë Mountain National Park in the Dibër region, 200 hectares have burned, in the Mallakastër region, 120 hectares plus 1,000 olive trees have burned, and in the areas of Bulqizë and Shkodër, a combined 55 hectares of vegetation have burned.
There are especially concerns about the impact on Lura National Park, an important protected biodiverse-rich area that is home to the European brown bear, Eurasian lynx, Eurasian wolf, European pine marten, roe deer, and western capercaillie. Concerns mount about habitat loss, risk of soil erosion, and post-fire floods during autumn rains in protected areas.
The Albanian authorities estimate that over the past month, 34,000 hectares have burned, but the full-scale impact of the impacts of the country’s 2025 wildfire season will not be known for a while.
We know that climate change played a significant role in the European-wide heat dome August event, but regional differences are likely in Albania, and how climate change played out in this event might not be known for some time.
Anders Lorenzen is the founding Editor of A greener life, a greener world.
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