Part of Spain was placed on alert for “extreme danger” from the heatwave on Tuesday as firefighters continue to battle a devastating blaze in the Canary archipelago.
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According to the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet), temperatures are likely to vary between 38°C and 42°C in much of the center of the Iberian Peninsula, reaching 43°C or even 44°C in Catalonia, Aragon and the Balearic Islands in particular in the east of the country -Archipelago.
In those three “red alert” regions, the “danger” will be “extreme,” the Aemet warned, conveying the authorities’ calls for caution, who had advised residents to stay safe during the hours when it was May hottest is to stay home the day and cool off with wet towels.
At noon (10:00 GMT) it was already 41.7 degrees in the province of Girona, Catalonia.
This heat wave is the third of the summer in Spain, but also the most intense. It has already caused extreme temperatures in the center and south of the country on Monday, with a high of 44.9°C in Andujar, Andalusia.
The Aemet had originally mentioned a high of 47°C in Villarrobledo (south), close to the all-time record of 47.6 degrees recorded on August 14, 2021 in the Andalusian city of La Rambla. But that figure, which was described as “dubious” on Monday evening, was invalidated by the weather agency on Tuesday morning.
This heatwave, affecting the entire Mediterranean basin, also resulted in night-time temperatures described as “hot” by the Aemet. In the famous Retiro Park in Madrid, the mercury temperature has not dropped below 25°C, the highest since the beginning of the summer.
“Coming from Seville, I’m used to the heat, but there we’re suffocating, we can’t be in the street, it’s terrible, terrible, terrible,” Lidia Rodríguez, 29, told AFP on Tuesday morning, while on vacation in the Spanish capital.
“Every summer it gets warmer”
Due to these high temperatures, the Ministry of the Interior warned of a fire risk classified as “very high” or even “extreme” in the country and in particular on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands archipelago, where firefighters have been fighting a large forest fire since Saturday.
According to the local authorities, a total of almost 3,500 hectares burned and 4,000 people had to be temporarily evacuated. “The fire remains active,” but the night was “fairly quiet,” local emergency services official Manuel Miranda said on Tuesday.
Due to a “deterioration in air quality” caused by the presence of “airborne particles”, residents of several localities on this island affected by a volcanic eruption in 2021 have been asked to limit their outdoor activities and put on a mask.
Spain is a country accustomed to the heat and for several years has been confronted with heat waves that have become more and more frequent and dense, leaving the inhabitants with little peace. In the center and south of the country, maximum temperatures rarely fell below 35°C between the various heat waves.
“It’s been warmer every summer for five or ten years,” notes AFP’s José Luis Llamas, a 66-year-old native of Madrid, who is “concerned” about this development. “We have to take action. All countries must take action to address this issue,” he stresses.
According to Aemet, the frequency of hot spells in the country on the frontline of climate change has tripled in the past decade. The duration of the meteorological summer has increased by about ten days per decade since the 1980s.
According to a study published on July 10 by the French National Health Institute (Inserm) and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), 11,324 people died in Spain last year as a result of heat waves.