Back to Wildfires Informer 2025

Travel

The 2024 wildfire season was one of the most destructive in recent years, although not as severe as the record-breaking events of 2023. Wildfires burned nearly 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, impacting communities, ecosystems and critical infrastructure.

In 2024, Ukraine and Portugal saw the most land affected, followed by Türkiye, North Macedonia and Italy. The scale and frequency of these fires underscore a growing trend: wildfire seasons are becoming longer, more intense and increasingly driven by the effects of climate change, land-use practices and human activity.

As we move through 2025, wildfires remain a significant environmental and operational challenge across the EMEA region. Each area faces distinct risks shaped by climate, geography and levels of preparedness, yet all are contending with the rising threat of fire-related disruptions. From mass evacuations and health hazards to closed roads, delayed trains and cancelled flights, the impact on daily life and travel has become unavoidable in many high-risk regions.

For the travel and tourism industry, these events now represent a seasonal risk that is both widespread and unpredictable. Mediterranean countries, in particular, continue to experience severe fire activity during the summer months, affecting rural communities and popular tourist areas alike. In some regions, the threat now extends year-round.

EURO

N/A

EMEA

Europe

Europe’s wildfire season typically spans from June to September, with Mediterranean countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Greece and southern France facing the highest risks due to hot, dry conditions.

In 2023, Europe endured one of its most severe wildfire seasons, with over 500,000 hectares (1,235,525 acres) burned, ranking among the five worst years since 2000. In 2024, the first quarter saw nearly double the average number of fires compared to historical data, though the total burned area remained below average until mid-September, when Portugal experienced a surge in wildfires. Climate change, marked by prolonged heatwaves and droughts, has intensified wildfires, extending risks to northern Europe. For instance, the United Kingdom has already seen record-breaking wildfires in early 2025, with 30,000 hectares (74,131 acres) burned, exceeding its 2012–2024 average. Greece is preparing for a “troubling” 2025 season, mobilising over 18,000 firefighters and 3,700 vehicles, indicating heightened concern.

The summer of 2025 remains the peak wildfire risk period in Europe, especially across Mediterranean regions. While urban areas are generally less vulnerable, rural and forested zones remain highly susceptible. In September 2024, Portugal experienced severe wildfires, particularly in the Aveiro district. Thick smoke and active fires forced the closure of major highways, including the A1 motorway between Lisbon and Porto, as well as the A25 and A29. Rail services were also disrupted due to fires near the tracks, with heat and smoke posing safety hazards.

Air travel is especially sensitive to wildfire impacts, with smoke reducing visibility and nearby fires threatening operations. In August 2024, wildfires on the island of Madeira led to flight cancellations and delays at Funchal Cristiano Ronaldo Airport (FNC/LPMA). Urban areas are not immune, as shown by the August 2024 wildfires in northeastern Attica, Greece. Driven by strong winds and extreme heat, fires near Varnavas and Marathon forced the evacuation of several communities and destroyed hundreds of homes.

In addition to directly disrupting transport, wildfires can significantly impact travel infrastructure and disrupt travel plans. Crete and Rhodes, among other popular Greek summer destinations, remain at risk of severe wildfires, which have prompted mass evacuations of tourists in past summer seasons.

Travellers planning to visit Europe during the summer months should remain vigilant, especially when heading to rural or forested areas in Mediterranean countries. It is advisable to monitor local news and official advisories, such as those provided by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), have contingency plans in place and consider travel insurance that covers natural disasters to mitigate potential disruptions caused by wildfires.

Middle East

The Middle East experiences heightened wildfire risks from April to October, particularly in countries with forested areas or shrublands, such as Israel, Lebanon, Türkiye and parts of Iran and Syria. The 2023–2024 period saw a marked rise in wildfire activity across Iran, Iraq, the Levant and parts of the Arabian Peninsula, with satellite data indicating high anomalies in burnt areas. Türkiye and Lebanon experienced major forest fires in 2023, while Iran’s northern provinces continued to face recurring outbreaks.

In 2025, Israel faced one of its worst wildfire events in late April to early May, burning over 2,500 hectares (6,177 acres) near Jerusalem. The fires, fuelled by high temperatures and strong winds, prompted a national emergency declaration. Major routes, including Highway 1 (Jerusalem to Tel Aviv), were closed, with people abandoning cars and fleeing on foot, as rail services between Jerusalem and Modi’in and near Ashdod, were halted due to the proximity of fires, and at least nine communities were evacuated. Another fire broke out in the Ben Shemen Forest on 3 May 2025, indicating ongoing risks.

Travellers to the Middle East in 2025 should expect similar disruptions during the dry season, particularly in Israel and Türkiye, where forested areas are prone to fires. Monitoring transport updates and avoiding rural areas during peak risk periods is advisable.

Africa

Africa’s wildfire seasons vary significantly due to the continent’s climatic diversity. In sub-Saharan regions like Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), wildfires typically occur during the dry season, with timing varying by location. In South Africa, peak fire season is in spring (September to November), though agricultural fires are common during winter months (June to August). Neighbouring countries like Botswana follow similar patterns. In North African countries such as Algeria and Tunisia, summer heatwaves (June to August) heighten wildfire risks.

In 2025, Africa has faced a sharp rise in wildfires, fuelled by climate change, prolonged droughts and human activity, such as deforestation and land clearing. Cape Town’s Table Mountain National Park faced major wildfires in February and April. The February blaze, fuelled by strong winds, burned over 56 hectares (148 acres) within 24 hours. Kenya has recorded over 180 wildfire incidents since January, impacting critical ecosystems like the Mau, Aberdares and Mount Kenya forests. Fires have also erupted in Nairobi National Park, Ruma National Park and Mount Elgon National Park. Even the typically wet Congo Basin has seen wildfire activity double in recent years, a troubling sign of changing climate patterns.

Travellers to Africa should exercise caution by avoiding rural areas during dry seasons and checking local advisories for risk of fire, particularly in North African countries during summer. They should also be aware of health risks from wildfire smoke and potential disruptions to travel plans due to road closures or evacuations. Monitoring weather forecasts and staying informed about climate-driven fire risks can further ensure safe travel.

SSA

N/A

MENA

N/A

APAC

Unlike the EMEA and the Americas, fewer countries in the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region experience regular wildfires.

The worst-affected countries include Australia, Indonesia and India. Australia is frequently hit with bushfires, which are wildfires that burn in grasslands, scrublands or forests, with around 45,000-65,000 occurring annually. Bushfires kill dozens of Australians per year, while their smoke causes health complications that result in the deaths of nearly 500 people annually. While bushfires can occur all year round, each Australian state has different periods for “bushfire season”. In the southernmost parts of the country, such as Hobart, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth, the threat of bushfire peaks from late spring until mid-autumn seasons (mid-November to mid-April).

In Canberra and Greater Sydney, the bushfire season starts from October to the end of March. In the northern and eastern parts of the country, bushfire season occurs in the winter and spring seasons, with Brisbane and Darwin experiencing peak fire danger from July to October. In 2024, Australia experienced the second-hottest year on record. One of the worst recent bushfires is the Grampians National Park bushfire, which began on 17 December 2024 and was contained in early January 2025, with more than 76,000 hectares (187,800 acres) of national park and agricultural land burnt. As of May 2025, bushfires have heavily affected Western Australia and Victoria states, particularly during March and April.

Indonesia experiences frequent forest fires, which are often massive in size. Wildfire risk is highest during the dry season, running from April to September, with drought and heat waves peaking in July and August. Travellers should exercise caution when visiting forest areas, especially on Borneo and Sumatra. Extensive logging and palm oil plantation cultivation have greatly increased the forest fire risk. In 2024, the worst-affected province was East Nusa Tenggara, with 283,620 hectares (700,840 acres) burnt due to wildfires between January and September. Wildfires in around 3,163 locations were recorded in the province, marking a reduction from last year’s 7,786 locations.

In the Indian subcontinent, forest fires are expected to increase significantly in the coming years due to rising temperatures. The frequency of forest fires in India has increased by 52 percent in the last two decades. The wildfire season in India generally occurs between November and June. The forests of northeast India are largely covered by dry deciduous trees that lose their leaves in autumn, making them more vulnerable to fire, while forests in southern India are less prone to fires as the vegetation is largely evergreen or semi-evergreen trees that remain green throughout the year. However, Forest Survey of India (FSI) data have recorded thousands of forest fires since the beginning of the year.

Central states, such as Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, have been the most affected, but fires have also been reported in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the north. A combination of dry winter and early heat waves due to anomalies in the weather pattern and other weather events, such as El Niño, which is also associated with a potential reduction in rainfall during the monsoon season, has contributed to the increase in forest fires in these areas. Tamil Nadu‘s wet forests also experienced some of the worst fires in their history. Some 3,380 fires were reported during the dry months (February to May) of the last season, more than twice as many as two years earlier.

AMER

In North America, the wildfire season usually runs from spring to fall. In the United States, the timing of the wildfire season varies due to the country’s diversity of environments. In areas such as the Great Plains, late winter is the highest-risk period, while in spring, it is the Upper Midwest and Southeast, and between summer and fall, California and the West.

In January, a handful of wildfires, including the Eaton and the Palisades Fires, erupted in the Los Angeles metro area and raced through multiple neighbourhoods. The fires were the result of the hazardous overlap of multiple human and natural factors. On the weather and climate side, there were great amounts of flammable vegetation due to extreme wetness, followed by extreme heat and record dryness.

Wildfire season in Canada typically runs from April until September or October, when cooler temperatures begin to dampen fire activity. In 2025, weather patterns seen in Canada have created rapid fire growth in the early part of May, resulting in some evacuations in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan. Canada saw more than 5.3 million hectares (13,096,585 acres) burned through 2024 and another 620,000 hectares (1,532,053 acres) as of mid-2025.

In Latin America, the dry season, normally lasting from December to April, can lead to an increase in forest fires due to the lack of rainfall. In 2024, a forest fire in the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala destroyed more than 11,000 hectares of forest in less than two weeks. In the current fire season, which began in January, 1,208 fires have been recorded throughout the country. In neighboring El Salvador, there have been 46 VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) fire alerts reported as of May.

Between 1-27 January, 13,967 fire outbreaks were recorded in South America. Countries like Colombia, Venezuela and the Southern Cone are especially vulnerable to fires as high temperatures and reduced rainfall create conditions conducive to the spread of fire.

In September 2024, around 249 fires were registered in Colombia and by the end of January 2025, 177 forest fires were recorded, affecting nearly 30,000 hectares in 103 municipalities across all departments, with Vichada as the most affected. In Venezuela, as of March, 23 forest fires were registered in different states, affecting a total of 51,290 hectares (126,740 acres), with the states of Sucre and Distrito Capital being the most affected.

The Brazilian Amazon has become increasingly vulnerable to wildfires due to climate change and mass deforestation. Additionally, the Pantanal, a giant seasonal floodplain and the world’s largest tropical wetland, located mostly in Mato Grosso do Sul, has also been suffering great damage due to fires. The fire season in southern Brazil usually starts in July and peaks in August and September but in June 2024, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) observed unusually intense fire activity in the Pantanal and by August 2024, fires had burned 1.22 million hectares (3,014,686 acres), equivalent to half the size of Belgium.

In the Southern Cone, countries like Chile, Argentina and Uruguay are prone to wildfires, with Chile the worst-affected in recent history. Chile’s forested areas are most at risk, particularly between the summer months of October and March; summers in Argentina and Uruguay run from December to February and March, respectively. In Argentine Patagonia, large wildfires in Chubut province‘s Epuyén and Atilio Viglione triggered mass evacuations and destroyed dozens of homes in January and February.

In Chile, a state of emergency and curfew were declared in February by President Boric in Ñuble, Maule and Araucanía regions, due to the high risk of wildfires. In the 2024-2025 wildfire period, 6,226 fires have been registered, several of which have resulted in mass evacuations and displacements.

Travellers should be informed of the different wildfire seasons depending on the regional area they will be visiting.

Stay informed

Wildfires can disrupt travel in several ways. Smoke reduces visibility and grounds flights. Power outages affect airport operations. Road closures and evacuations impact traffic. Smoke and haze also worsen health conditions for travellers. Beyond travel disruptions, wildfires devastate ecosystems, destroy livelihoods and harm local economies, especially in terms of tourism.

Some popular destinations are expected to lose attractiveness in the long term, due to extreme heat temperatures and wildfires that occur more often over touristic coastal regions, making northern countries more attractive. This trend of “coolcationing,” travelling to cooler destinations, is already gaining popularity. Despite wildfire risks, there is still a high demand for travel to the most-affected areas worldwide. Staying informed ahead of wildfire seasons is crucial to prevent these events from ruining your travel plans.

There are several ways to remain updated, the best is to follow the latest information from reliable sources:

Government agencies, including the local Civil Protection, Fire Departments, National Disaster Authorities, Forestry Departments and the Ministry of Environment
Trusted meteorological and weather channels
International Space and Environment-focused agencies, such as emergency.copernicus.eu and GDACS
Trusted local news channels
Social media platforms like X (Twitter), Facebook and Instagram have also become a place to find the latest information and instructions, as the rapidity with which information is shared may be of crucial help in emergencies, for example, to learn hyper-local insights about roadblocks and smoke conditions in real-time. However, updates are not always reliable and verified, and some actors might take advantage of rapidly evolving crises such as wildfires to spread misinformation and mislead officials’ instructions. It’s advisable to always verify updates via trusted sources
Real-time updates, such as Riskline’s Alerts, deliver continuous, verified information about the rapidly evolving impact of wildfires. They report only official, human-verified instructions, covering evacuations, shelter locations, mobility disruptions and other critical consequences

Travel Advice

Purchase travel insurance

Purchasing it before departure is always recommended, as several contingencies could impact your travel plans. When heading to areas notoriously affected by wildfires, travellers should protect themselves with comprehensive travel insurance that covers cancellations and disruptions due to natural disasters, including wildfires.

While some policies offer full coverage of the trip, others provide a refund and compensation only for trip delay or interruption or provide credits and vouchers for future travel itineraries. However, the possibility of refunds or compensation may vary depending on the specific circumstances of the event and the policies of the travel providers involved. Some airlines, including United and American Airlines, have previously issued waivers allowing passengers whose trips were affected by wildfires to reschedule their flights at no additional cost.

During extremely severe wildfires in the summer of 2023, the governments of Italy and Greece offered refund/cancellation options to tourists without insurance coverage impacted by the wildfires on the islands of Sicily and Rhodes. However, these were exceptional circumstances. Travellers should not rely on this possibility and buy full coverage travel insurance before departure.

Contact all travel providers involved in your trip

If you booked your tickets through a travel agency, reach out to them directly. Additionally, contact hotels, car rental companies and any other service providers associated with your bookings to get the latest updates on cancellations or changes due to the wildfire.

Stay indoors

If a wildfire is threatening the area where your accommodation is located, stay indoors and remain at a relatively safe distance from the blaze. Limit exposure to smoke by closing all windows and doors. The fresh air intake on air-conditioners should be shut off. If your place of residence is threatened, select a direct route that leads you away from fire hazards. Watch for changes in the speed and direction of the fire and its smoke trail. Wear protective clothing: sturdy shoes, cotton or wool pants, a long-sleeved shirt, gloves and a breathable covering to protect your face.

Monitor air quality

Wildfires cause poor air quality, which can be harmful, especially for individuals with preexisting respiratory issues, the young and the elderly. Consider wearing masks rated for smoke protection if the air quality is poor.

Keep your travel plans flexible

Be ready to adjust your itinerary if local authorities issue evacuation orders or safety advisories, or if your transport is affected. Wildfires often lead to road closures, flight delays and cancellations. Prepare an emergency kit with essentials like water, non-perishable food, first aid supplies, flashlights, batteries, masks, important documents, cash, clothing and hygiene items. If you’re travelling by car, make sure your tank is full and pack your emergency kit, valuables and documents in the vehicle before you set off.

Expect potential disruptions to telecommunications

In emergencies like wildfires, communication networks can become overloaded. Damage to infrastructure from fires, combined with increased data traffic in evacuation areas, may cause mobile network outages, resulting in delays or interruptions in receiving critical information.

Contributors:

Travel EMEA: Claudia Gualdi, Patricia Baruffi
Travel APAC: Farhan Rafi, Lorenzo Trevisan
Travel AMER: Diego Maloney, Lorena Peña
Stay informed: Claudia Gualdi
Traveller Advice: Claudia Gualdi

Editor:

Paul Mutter, Global Coverage Manager at Riskline

Go to Safety report

Back to Wildfires Informer 2025

Destination Research

Travel Search

TripReady

Realtime Alerts

Travel and Tech Data

Security and Assistance Data

Technology Solutions

About Us

Careers

Get in Touch

The Informer

Newsroom

Forecast

Reports