{
  "id": 8887020,
  "title": "In Europe, Today's Children Will Live Through Nearly Twice as Many Fire Weather Days Than Their Grandparents",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/in-europe-todays-children-will-live-through-nearly-twice-as-many-fire",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-21T09:00:04.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Time",
    "slug": "time",
    "url": "https://time.com/article/2026/09/21/children-europe-extreme-fire-weather-climate-future/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A new study published in Environmental Research Letters reveals that children born in Europe today will face nearly twice as many extreme fire weather days compared to their grandparents. By 2100, a child born in Europe in 2025 will experience over three additional years of extreme fire weather, while someone born in 1950 would have faced fewer. The Mediterranean region, already impacted by wildfires, is projected to see up to 2.5 times more exposure to extreme fire weather for those born in 2025 compared to those born in 1950, equating to over five extra years of risk.\n\nResearchers utilized climate model projections for fire weather, known as the Fire Weather Index, which measures hot, dry, and windy conditions that increase wildfire risk. Extreme fire weather days are defined as those with the top 5% fire weather index for a country, based on the period of 1985-2014. For instance, Portugal, which has experienced the highest area burned in recent decades, could see extreme fire weather days more than double from 14 per year in the 1950s to 32 per year by 2100.\n\nEach degree of global warming by century's end adds roughly 272 more days of extreme fire weather for a Portuguese child born in 2025. Greece's children can expect 473 additional days of exposure, while Spanish and Italian children will face 448 days. Wildfire smoke exposure leads to immediate health issues like stinging eyes, wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath, and long-term exposure can exacerbate lung and heart diseases, cause cognitive impairment, and increase mortality risk. The study emphasizes that rapid emission reductions could mitigate exposure in all regions. Limiting warming to 1.5°C could avert much of this exposure, but the current trajectory is far from that goal. The European continent, the world's fastest-warming area, has seen temperatures rise by 0.56°C per decade since the 1990s, surpassing the global average. Recent severe heatwaves and wildfires across Europe highlight the urgent reality of these climate risks, emphasizing that each degree of warming counts and every reduction can lessen the hazards young people face.",
  "summary": "Scientists calculate just how much more extreme fire weather new generations will live through.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}