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Western Europe heatwave to peak in scorching Spain

The heatwave sweeping across southwestern Europe was expected to peak on Thursday in Spain, with blistering temperatures already fuelling wildfires across the Iberian Peninsula and France.

Western Europe heatwave to peak in scorching Spain
Two women use fans to fight the scorching heat during a heatwave in Seville on June 13, 2022. Photo: CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP

The region’s second heat this summer is forecast to hit southern Spain with some of the harshest temperatures.

“For Thursday, we expect it to be the hottest day of this heatwave,” said Spain’s state meteorological agency AEMET.

The valleys around three major rivers — the Guadiana, Guadalquivir and Tagus — will experience temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), it said.

Most of Spain went on high alert Wednesday, and AEMET said some regions were “suffocating” — especially worst-affected Andalusia in the south, Extremadura in the southwest and Galicia in the northwest.

The health ministry told people to drink plenty of fluids, wear light clothes and stay in the shade or air-conditioning.

The Andalusian city of Almonte saw the mercury hit 45.6 degrees Celsius at 5:30 pm (1530 GMT) on Wednesday.

Several other southern cities such as Seville and Cordoba recorded temperatures above 44C. 

In western Spain near the border with Portugal, forest fires have already razed at least 3,500 hectares (8,600 acres).

Between January 1 and July 3, more than 70,300 hectares of forest went up in smoke in Spain, the government said — almost double the average of the past 10 years.

‘The end of the world’

Heatwaves have become more frequent due to climate change, scientists say, the previous ones in France, Portugal and Spain having taken place only last month.

Last week, an avalanche triggered by the collapse of the largest glacier in the Italian Alps — due to unusually warm temperatures — killed 11 people.

In Greece, a helicopter helping to fight a forest blaze on the island of Samos on Wednesday crashed into the Aegean Sea, said the coastguard. Two crew members were killed.

And in Portugal — on alert for wildfires for days — one person had died in a forest blaze, authorities said, after a body was found in a burned area in the northern region of Aveiro.

Around 60 others have been injured, over 700 people evacuated and nearly 30 homes destroyed or damaged.

Over 2,000 firefighters were battling four major fires in Portugal on Thursday morning.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa warned that Thursday would be the “most serious” day of the heat wave because temperatures were expected to rise and winds were stronger.

“Today is the day where we have to be the most careful,” he said.

At Leiria, central Portugal, locals fought to save their village as fires closed in on them.

“Everything burned yesterday except the houses, because the people are very brave and defended them themselves,” said 77-year-old farmer Adelino Rodrigues.

“The firefighters arrived much later.” “It looked like the end of the world,” he said.

It brought back memories of the devastating wildfires in 2017, which claimed the lives of more than 100 people in Portugal.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Far hotter than normal’: Spain set for scorching summer after rainy June

Rainy periods have marked June so far in parts of the country, but Spain’s meteorological agency has warned that it could still have one the hottest summers on record.

'Far hotter than normal': Spain set for scorching summer after rainy June

Spain could be set for a “far hotter than normal” summer this year, with experts predicting that it could be one of the hottest on record. This is according to forecasts by Spain’s state meteorological agency (Aemet).

Aemet spokesman Rubén del Campo stated that “there’s a high probability that temperatures will be much higher than normal and that this summer will be among the hottest 20 percent on historical record.”

READ ALSO: 2023 was second-hottest year on record in Spain

He added that the probability of a scorching summer is between 70-100 percent in most of Spain, and that the unusually warm weather could be felt most in the northern half of the peninsula, as well as the eastern Canary Islands.

Aemet posted some weather forecast maps to its X/Twitter account in recent days, with the entirety of the Spanish mainland and islands covered in dark red, meaning a high probability of abnormally high temperatures. “The high probability” of a heatwave, it said, “extends to the rest of southern Europe and northern Africa.”

This follows something of a stop-start June with rainy periods in many parts of the country. Del Campo admitted that so far “it seems that the summer hasn’t started” because temperatures are “slightly” lower than normal for the time of year, but stressed that Aemet forecast models predict that the intense heat will not take long to arrive. 

A marked rise in temperatures is expected for this weekend, although they could drop again next week before going up again as high summer approaches, according to forecasts.

With regards to rainfall, it seems it will likely also be a dry summer with little rain. Del Campo predicted “a summer with less rain than usual, especially in the north and inland peninsula”, where there is a 50-60 percent probability of rainfall below historical averages for the time of year:  “The most likely scenario is that of a quarter with less rainfall than usual,” he added.

Though an unusually wet Easter period helped to refill some of Spain’s dwindling reservoir reserves, a long period of dry weather will likely worsen Spain’s ongoing drought conditions. The problem is particularly bad in Catalonia and Andalusia.

READ ALSO: Will drought restrictions affect summer holidays in Spain?

Looking back on spring temperatures, Aemet data shows that it was also one of the warmest on record. Del Campo stressed that it was “the eighth warmest spring of the 21st century and the tenth since the start of the historical series in 1961.”

The average temperature during spring was 13.1C, which is 0.7C above average values for the 1991-2020 period. “Eight of the ten warmest springs on record have been recorded since 2006, further evidence of climate change,” Del Campo said.

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