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It’s been far from an idyllic summer for Europe, where powerful wildfires have incinerated France and Spain, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and driving what has likely been both countries’ largest peacetime evacuations ever.

If regions haven’t been torched, they may be parched. Water levels in the Danube River, a vital artery for Europe, have plunged to such depths that remnants of sunken World War II German warships are now visible to onlookers.

It’s been far from an idyllic summer for Europe, where powerful wildfires have incinerated France and Spain, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and driving what has likely been both countries’ largest peacetime evacuations ever.

If regions haven’t been torched, they may be parched. Water levels in the Danube River, a vital artery for Europe, have plunged to such depths that remnants of sunken World War II German warships are now visible to onlookers.

For some countries, the lack of water has had such immense energy implications that authorities have resorted to detonating explosives at riverbeds in hopes that the blasts will help to redirect much-needed cooling water to a nearby nuclear reactor.

“If you just look at this summer in Europe from a climate and wildfire perspective, in isolation, it literally reads like a slightly overwritten disaster movie,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Yet this is no........

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