Residents of the towns affected by the wildfires in the western mountains of Madrid (Picture: Mariscal/EPA)

‘It’s the perfect storm of very high temperatures and ceaseless winds that aren’t letting up.’

The causes of the wildfires in France and Spain are still unclear but come after weeks of extreme heat and dry weather.

Since late May,multiple heatwaves have parched huge stretches of easily flammable forests,scrubland and mountainsides.

Wildfires have burned more land in Europe already this year than the annual average in the past two ​decades, data shows.

Experts told Metro that climate change,caused by humans burning fossil fuels,is behind the temperature increases that make wildfires likely.

Last month was the hottest June on record in Western Europe,according to the European climate monitoring group, Copernicus.

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