Mainland Spain endured its hottest summer since records began in 1961, with an unprecedented 61 heatwave days across June, July and August, national weather agency Aemet said on Wednesday.
The average temperature for those three months was 24.5C, 0.3C above the previous record from 2025 and 2.4C higher than the 1991-2020 reference period, Aemet said in a statement.
A string of exceptional summer heatwaves have smashed temperature records across Europe this year, which scientists say human-driven climate change has intensified and lengthened.
Aemet said the 10 hottest summers on record in Spain have all come in the 21st century.
This year’s number of summer heatwave days obliterated the previous high of 41 from 2022.
Exceptional heat has also spilled over the traditional limits of summer, with high temperatures measured in late May and early September.
On September 2nd, the southwestern municipality of El Granado reached 45.7C, equalling the temperature record for the month and marking the highest temperature in Spain this year.
The extreme heat has been linked to tens of thousands of excess deaths across Europe, upended daily life for millions in ill-adapted regions and disrupted the economy through drought and low river levels.
In Spain, the Carlos III Health Institute has estimated more than 5,000 heat-related deaths from June to August, a record since its statistics began in 2015.
Such heat contributed to ideal conditions for wildfires that devoured swathes of land across the continent.
In late July, a blaze just dozens of kilometres west of Madrid sparked the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, with authorities describing it at the time as the largest wildfire in Spain’s recent history.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System, almost 296,000 hectares (731,000 acres) have gone up in smoke in Spain this year as of September 2nd.
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