MADRID: Spain’s recent sixteen-day heatwave has been declared the most intense ever recorded in the country’s history.
The State Meteorological Agency confirmed that provisional readings from August third to eighteenth surpassed the previous record set in July 2022.
Temperatures during this period averaged 4.6 degrees Celsius higher than typical heatwave conditions.
This extreme weather event worsened already dangerous fire conditions across the nation.
Wildfires fueled by the heat continue to devastate northern and western regions of Spain.
Official estimates link the heatwave to more than one thousand one hundred fatalities nationwide.
The Carlos III Health Institute released these mortality figures on Tuesday.
Spain has experienced seventy-seven heatwaves since records began in 1975.
Six of these heatwaves have exceeded average temperatures by four degrees Celsius or more.
Five of these extreme heat events have occurred since 2019 alone.
Climate scientists worldwide confirm that climate change is intensifying heatwave frequency and duration.
A ten-day period within the heatwave from August eighth to seventeenth set another grim record.
This marked the hottest consecutive ten-day stretch in Spain since at least 1950.
The meteorological agency emphasized that current summers are scientifically proven hotter than previous decades.
“Each summer is not always going to be hotter than the previous one, but there is a clear trend towards much more extreme summers,“ the agency stated.
“What is key is adapting to, and mitigating, climate change,“ they added. – AFP
