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With bushfires raging across Europe, the race is on to repatriate thousands of British holidaymakers trapped in inferno hotspots.
Flights to retrieve British tourists stranded by the flames will later land on the Greek island of Rhodes, while another evacuation order has been issued for parts of Corfu.
Wildfires are also wreaking havoc in parts of southern Italy, with the risk of some breaking out in parts of Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Cyprus in the coming days.
It follows a week of record-breaking heat on the continent and has sparked fears many other British holidaymakers could have their summer holidays disrupted by the fires.
So is your vacation at risk? With the help of Copernicus – Europe’s ‘Eyes on Earth’ satellite program – MailOnline is looking at where bushfires are currently raging or are expected to break out in the coming week.
Is your vacation at risk? MailOnline looks at where more wildfires could start with the help of Europe’s ‘eyes on Earth’ satellite programme, Copernicus. In the above map, very low risk is green, low is greenish yellow, moderate is yellow, high is orange, very high is red and dark brown extreme
This is possible thanks to the Sentinel-3 mission enter data into the Copernicus Emergency Management Service to create a map of wildfires and a ‘fire hazard forecast’.
It suggests that in addition to the countries listed above, there is also a risk of wildfires in parts of southeastern France, northeastern Austria, eastern Germany, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
The program’s “fire hazard forecast,” which is based on the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) system, has six different levels: very low, low, moderate, high, very high, and extreme.
It involves coming up with a numerical FWI rating after calculating daily observations of temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and 24-hour precipitation.
The map shows very low as green, low as greenish yellow, moderate as yellow, high as orange, very high as red and dark brown as extreme.
Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey are the four European countries with ‘extreme’ wildfire forecasts this week.
To be predicted as extreme, the FWI rating must be above 50.
Much of the central and southeastern part of inland Spain has received that classification in the coming days, along with the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia and the Greek island of Rhodes.
It comes in the wake of a heat wave of more than 40°C called Cerberus that caused parts of Europe to wilt in record temperatures.
In Sardinia the mercury reached 46.2C (115F), Malaga airport in Spain reached 44.2C (111F) and Durrës in Albania 40.4C (104F).
Much of Spain and France will get some reprieve from the extreme heat in the coming days, but for Italy and east into the Balkans, the worst may still be on the way.
Eyes from above: The European Sentinel-3 mission feeds data into the Copernicus Emergency Management Service to create a map of where bushfires started over the past month. The photo shows the Greek island of Rhodes, where fires have been raging since last Tuesday
Extreme heat: Parts of Italy, including Sicily, have experienced wildfires over the past week
Vast: This satellite image shows the extent of the forest fires that have broken out in Rhodes
That’s because if Cerberus dies out, Italian weather forecasters warn that the next heat wave — named Charon after the ferryman who carried souls to the underworld in Greek mythology — will push temperatures even higher.
So much so that the mercury could reach 47C (116F) in Sardinia and 43C (109F) in Rome.
That doesn’t bode well for British holidaymakers heading to places like Italy, Croatia and Greece, nor those already stranded there.
Holidaymakers in Rhodes and Corfu have described a ‘living nightmare’ in which they were awakened by air raid sirens and forced to run into the sea as fires raged through forests and hills above their hotels.
It is estimated that there are up to 10,000 Britons in Rhodes, with repatriation flights to rescue holidaymakers now landing back in the UK.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not currently advise against traveling to the region.
Instead, it is recommended that people talk to their holiday companies if they have any concerns.
Scarred: The European Forest Fire Information System map also illustrates the fire areas where these forest fires have caused extensive damage. Rhodes, Sicily, Sardinia and parts of mainland Greece are among the hardest hit areas so far
On the run: Joanna Hughes, her husband Jon Hughes and their daughter Emilia, from Murton, County Durham, had to walk four miles to escape the Rhodes bushfires
Great escape: Some families said they were told to stay where they were in Rhodes, but decided to flee on foot amid the terrifying fires
Stranded: Families sleep and play on the floor of Rhodes airport as they wait for a rescue flight
Greece has been melting in intense heat for the past month, with temperatures rising above 40C and wildfires burning in some parts of the country for nearly a week.
Rhodes firefighters have been tackling them since last Tuesday, and officials have evacuated some 19,000 people in the process.
The map of the European Forest Fire Information System also illustrates the fire areas where these forest fires have caused great damage.
Using data from the Sentinel-2 satellite, which is also part of the Copernicus programme, it appears that Rhodes, Sicily, Sardinia and parts of mainland Greece have the most serious incidents with land scarred by summer fires.
Portugal, Italy, Turkey and Spain also have some slightly less intense hotspots.
Use the interactive map above or visit the Website of the European Forest Fire Information System.
Scorching heat: Firefighters in Rhodes have battled bushfires since last Tuesday, with officials evacuating some 19,000 people in the process
A number of fires have also raged on Corfu, which is extremely popular with British tourists