According to the meteorological agency (Aemet), Spain is facing its first wave of summer heat, with temperatures exceeding 44 degrees in the south of the country on Monday (June 26th). Several regions have been put on alert. This heat wave started on Sunday June 25 and the thermometer exceeded 38 degrees in Madrid, reaching 44.4 degrees in El Granado, in Andalusia (southwest). On Sunday, the mercury had already reached 43.8 degrees in this municipality located near the border with Portugal, according to the meteorological agency, which forecasts a return of temperatures to a more bearable level in the middle of the week.
In Seville (southwest), where the thermometer reached 42.9 degrees on Monday, soaring temperatures forced many workers to change their schedules to avoid heatstroke. “Normally, we work from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., but we have changed that from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ” Construction worker Miguel Angel told AFPTV that the extreme heat is worrying. “Three years ago, I had four sunstrokes” while working, “heat strokes that knocked me unconscious. Today I’m very careful,” he explained.
Soaring temperatures have led the authorities to activate their anti-heat plans, which determine the different levels of risk for the population and make it possible to adapt the timetables of schools and outdoor work. In 2022, several workers had died at their workplace in Spain, due to extreme temperatures. These deaths had prompted the authorities to strengthen the protection measures for employees, by prohibiting work during the hottest hours.
A country on the front line of global warming in Europe, Spain is used to extreme temperatures, especially in the south, but it has been facing a multiplication and intensification of heat waves in recent years, according to scientists.
“Over the past ten years, the frequency of these heat events has tripled compared to previous years. This goes hand in hand with the lengthening of the duration of the (meteorological) summer by about ten days per decade since the 1980s,” said Ruben del Campo, spokesperson for Aemet.
At the end of April, a mass of hot, dry air from North Africa had already caused an absolute record temperature for the month of April in mainland Spain with 38.8 degrees, a level worthy of the month of July. This phenomenon “would have been almost impossible without climate change”, demonstrated a few days later a study published by the World Weather Attribution (WWA).
More broadly, Europe experienced a year 2022 that was 2.3 degrees warmer than the climate at the end of the 19th century, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced last week, confirming the continent is overheating at an twice as fast as the world average, which fuels heat waves and exceptional droughts.