Spain forced to take emergency action as temperatures reach 38C

Country is biggest exporter of olive oil and drought has driven up prices

A woman shelters from the sun in Madrid last summer. Last week, Europe’s leading scientists warned “alarming” climate change will lead to heatwaves becoming longer and heat stress threatening lives, after the continent’s warmest ever recorded summer. Photo: AP/Manu Fernandez

Spain is sweltering in summertime temperatures — with highs of 38 degrees centigrade in the southern Guadalquivir Valley — the country's national weather service said.

Health officials are considering bringing in a heat prevention plan two weeks early to help regions respond to the unseasonably warm weather's effects.

The State Meteorological Agency said temperatures are "exceptionally high" for April because of a mass of very warm and dry air coming from North Africa.

With a long weekend coming up, beaches are packed along the coast. But residents who could not get away from Spain's inland capital, Madrid, are less lucky.

Loli Gutierrez, 70, said she is worried about what conditions will be like when summer comes.

"This is already unbearable," she said. "We are only in April. If this happening in April, how is it going to be June?"

Last year was Spain's hottest since record-keeping started in 1961, and also the country's sixth driest despite the presence of weather phenomenon La Nina, which slightly dampened global average temperatures.

The Spanish government has requested emergency funds from the European Union to support farmers amid extreme drought conditions in the country's agricultural heartlands, including the Guadalquivir Valley.

The world's biggest exporter of olive oil, Spain is also an important producer of fruits and vegetables for the European market. The drought has already driven up prices of Spanish olive oil to record levels.`

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Currently, 27% of Spanish territory is classified as in a drought "emergency" or "alert", according to the Ecological Transition Ministry, and water reserves are at 50% of capacity nationally.

Last week, Europe’s leading scientists warned “alarming” climate change will lead to heatwaves becoming longer and heat stress threatening lives, after the continent’s warmest ever recorded summer.

Southern Europe is particularly vulnerable to “extreme heat stress” as the continent continues to warm, C3S said in its State of the Climate 2022 report.

Last year overall was the second warmest year on record in Europe at just under 1C above the 1990 to 2020 average. However, last summer was the hottest on record at 1.4C above the recent average, C3S said.

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