Thousands of tourists evacuated from southwestern France as wildfires rage

• The heat has also sparked wildfires in Portugal that have injured dozens of people.

The big picture: Since Tuesday, firefighters have been working to extinguish two wildfires that have burned 1,700 hectares of forest in Gironde as of midday Wednesday, the regional government said in a statement.

• One wildfire, near the Atlantic coast, is in the Teste-de-Buch commune, home to the largest sand dune in Europe, and the other is near the town of Landiras, south of Bordeaux.
• "Significant human and material resources are deployed to bring the fires under control," the statement read, including nearly 600 firefighters, backed by six water-bomber aircraft, have been deployed to help fight the fires.

State of play: The weather conditions remain unfavorable, characterized by swirling winds and rising temperatures, and the region's sandy terrain is slowing rescue workers' pace.

• Firefighters have evacuated more than 6,000 people at five campsites near Teste-de-Buch and about 500 residents from villages near the Landiras fire, per an earlier update from the Gironde regional government.

• Among the evacuees were thousands of tourists, Reuters reported.
• On the day before Bastille Day, the Gironde regional government has forbidden all fireworks in towns and villages in close proximity to forests through July 18, per Reuters.

Worth noting: Studies show that as the climate warms, the frequency of heat waves dramatically increases — as does the severity and longevity of such events, per Axios' Andrew Freedman.

Go deeper: Heat domes spike in Europe as climate change helps shift weather patterns