Highs of 44 degrees are expected there. Almost all of Spain was on Wednesday on alert due to the heat wave. This heat wave, which started last weekend and should last at least until Sunday, will result in “suffocating” temperatures throughout the country, particularly in the regions of Andalusia (south), Extremadura (southwest) and Galicia (northwest), placed on red alert, according to Aemet, the national meteorological agency.
Apart from the Canary archipelago, all the other Spanish regions have been placed on alert at lower degrees. On Tuesday, a maximum of 43.9°C was recorded in the late afternoon in Mérida, Extremadura near the border with Portugal. This figure should be slightly beaten on Wednesday, according to the meteorological agency, which expects peaks of 44°C in Badajoz (Extremadura) and Cordoba (Andalusia).
The absolute temperature record recorded in Spain, which dates from August 2021 (47.4 degrees in Montoro, near Cordoba), should not a priori be beaten.
An “extreme” risk of fire exists throughout Spain
Due to this heat wave, coupled with the lack of rainfall in the Iberian Peninsula since the beginning of the year, an “extreme” risk of fire exists throughout the country, according to the prevention and extinguishing services. forest fires. At least 3,500 hectares have already burned in a mountainous region straddling the regions of Extremadura and Castile and Leon, not far from Portugal. The firefighters, who worked all night, nevertheless managed to “stabilize” the fire, according to regional authorities.
North-west of Madrid, nearly 500 residents have been temporarily evacuated due to another fire, also in the process of being controlled, according to the regional emergency services.
The proliferation of these phenomena is a direct consequence of global warming, with greenhouse gas emissions increasing in intensity, duration and frequency, the scientists explain. Including the current heat wave, Spain has gone through five episodes of exceptionally high temperatures over the past eleven months. The month of May had notably been the hottest there since the beginning of the century.