Climate change made fire-prone weather conditions likely in Spain and France

Human-caused climate change made the extreme weather fuelling wildfires in southwestern France twice as likely, and made the conditions driving blazes

in central Spain 20 times more likely, scientists said on Friday.



Ongoing wildfires in Spain and France have forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate and scorched huge swathes of land.



The World Weather Attribution group of scientists used historical weather observations to assess how "fire-prone" hot, dry and windy conditions, which indicate how difficult it is to suppress a fire once it starts, have changed over time.



Greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from burning coal, oil and gas, have increased the planet's average temperature to around 1.4 Celsius above pre-industrial times, according to the World Meteorological Organization.