While this change is not out of the ordinary – Europe shifts colour as vegetation dries – the intensity this year is different.
Using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, The European Correspondent tracked how the extreme heat and drought has reshaped the continent's colour.
June 2026 was the hottest month of June ever recorded in Western Europe. Many regions, especially in France, Spain, and Portugal, saw June precipitation reach far below average.
By the middle of June, some level of drought had affected nearly every country in Europe. Data from WISE Freshwater shows drought conditions affecting 37 of the 38 countries tracked by the European Environment Agency, with roughly 22% of the area affected.
A month later, water restrictions were enforced in nearly every region in mainland France, with the country having just gone through its third heatwave in as many months. Some of the largest rivers, including the Loire (France's longest river), saw their levels drop to their lowest in at least 30 years.
Changing colours
More than 30 of the 50 European regions with the biggest shift in colour between May and July 2026 are in France. Excluding Nordic countries, where late spring snowmelt drives significant changes every year, France is by far the country with the largest colour shift on the continent.
At the top of the list is Eure-et-Loir in Northern France, which went from dark green to a light caramel tone in the space of just two months.
According to our analysis, brown land cover along the Loire river nearly doubled, from 34% in a normal July to 70% this year, while the share of green land cover fell from 41% to just 9%. Eleven of France's 12 mainland regions saw their brown land cover rise by at least 10 percentage points.
Why it matters
Europe is the world's fastest warming continent, and it's experiencing more frequent and intense heatwaves. The consequences span beyond withering fields and forests. Financially, the European Commission estimates that droughts cost between €2-9 billion a year.
A study of previous European heatwaves found that the affected regions' economies are impacted years after the extreme weather event. Farmers see their crops failing, while other sectors' investments are diverted to dealing with the heat as opposed to developing their productivity, stunting economic development.
On top of that, the withering landscape combined with extreme heat and low humidity is a fire hazard. This year alone, Spain has already suffered 22 major fires, including a recent fire in rural Guadalajara that killed 13 people.
The consequences of a warmig world are hard to ignore. Early estimates show that this year's heatwaves might have already caused 20,000 excess deaths across the continent.