A 16-day heatwave Spain suffered this month was “the most intense on record”, the country’s State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) said on Sunday.
Provisional readings for the August 3rd-18th heatwave exceeded the last record, set in July 2022, with an average temperature 4.6C higher than for previous such phenomena, the agency said on X.
The first 20 days of the month were in fact warmest period since at least 1961 for Spain as a whole. And the period between August 8th and 17th was the warmest ten-day stretch recorded in Spain “since at least 1950” the agency confirmed.
Looking at the latest stats, AEMET has said that, “with almost complete certainty,” the summer of 2025 will be one of the two warmest in the series, similar to July 2022.
AEMET confirmed that hot spells have predominated over cold spells this year. While March was particularly cold and May was normal, the rest of the months have exceeded normal temperatures. “In Spain, heat waves are increasing in duration, extent, and intensity,” they confirmed.
“Our country has always had hot summers, but in recent years, episodes of very high temperatures, both daytime and nighttime, have been recorded more frequently,” they added.
The August heatwave exacerbated tinderbox conditions in Spain that fuelled wildfires that continue to ravage parts of the north and west of the country.
More than 1,100 deaths in Spain have been linked to the heatwave, according to an estimate released Tuesday by the Carlos III Health Institute.
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Since it began its records in 1975, AEMET has registered 77 heatwaves in Spain, with six of them going 4C or more above the average – five of those since 2019.
Scientists say climate change is driving longer, more intense and more frequent heatwaves worldwide.
The agency said that it is “a scientific fact that current summers are hotter than in previous decades”.
It added: “Each summer is not always going to be hotter than the previous one, but there is a clear trend towards much more extreme summers. What is key is adapting to, and mitigating, climate change.”
