While summer has already given way to autumn, the Iberian Peninsula is hot, really very hot. A historic heat wave hit Portugal and Spain this weekend with temperatures exceeding 32°, the Spanish national meteorological agency (Aemet) announced on Monday.
“On October 1, 2023, a historic heat record was broken in almost the entire territory of the Iberian Peninsula,” Aemet said on the social network X.
A heat that “will continue”
The highest temperature was recorded this Sunday in the town of Montoro, near Cordoba (southern Spain) with 38.2°, beating the previous record of 2014 for the month of October, in Marbella (south) : 37.5°, according to Aemet.
“These temperatures have already broken three records (September 29 and 30 and October 1),” argued the national meteorological agency. “But the most extraordinary thing is that this heat, abnormal for this period, will continue: we could break records for another ten days,” she warned.
The meteorological agencies of Spain and Portugal announced that the Iberian Peninsula was entering autumn from last Friday with abnormally high temperatures for this time of year, sometimes exceeding 35°C.
Although these temperatures are not comparable to the heat waves that affect the country during the hottest months, “the predicted values correspond to anomalies of up to about 5-8 °C above the usual average levels for the season,” explained the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).