2026 was the hottest summer on record in Spain, which suffered 61 days of heatwaves in the mainland and Balearic Islands.
June to August’s average temperature was 24.5C, 0.3C above the previous record of 24.2C from 2025 and 2.4C above the average of 22.1C from 1991 to 2020, the national weather agency AEMET said.
The outstanding heat extended well beyond the individual heat wave events. Between 30°F and 40°F, Spain experienced three major heatwaves in the summer, totaling 55 days, plus a heatwave in September, bringing the total to 61 days.
That is a new National Record that is well above the previous record of 41 heatwave days set in 2022. It translates to extremely hot days in Spain occurring about two out of every three days in the summer.
The first heatwave, between June 20 and 27, impacted a total of 42 provinces and was the third most widespread in AEMET’s record.
There were two more heatwaves of 23 and 24 days, respectively. They were the third and second longest heatwaves they had seen since, at least, 1975, when the heatwave lasted 26 days in July.
The extreme temperatures also occurred outside of the usual summer months of June through August. Particularly hot weather occurred in late May with July-like temperatures in large parts of Spain and another heatwave from 2nd to 7th September had an impact on 16 provinces.
September was the fifth September since 1987 (1988, 2006 and 2016) that showed a heatwave in Spain.
All 10 Spain’s hottest summers have happened in the 21st century and seven of eight warmest in the history of the Spanish state have happened since 2015, AEMET said.
The heat is part of a wider record temperatures in Europe and around the world. August 2026 was the world’s hottest month since August 2023, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said, and global temperatures were 1.65°C higher than the estimated pre-industrial average.
Source: Anadolu Ajansı
