Aemet says summer 2026 is hottest on record

The state agency also confirms that Spaniards have endured 61 days of heatwave conditions so far this year, more than in any previous year. Spain has left behind the feared and much-remembered summer of 2022 in terms of the number of days endured under a heatwave: 61, according to the State Meteorological Agency, 20 more than that year. The summer of 2026 has also recorded an average temperature of 24.5°C, making it the warmest in the historical series since records began in 1961 and surpassing last year, 2025, by 0.3°C and standing 2.4°C above the long-term average. Aemet points out that the ten warmest summers in the historical series have all occurred in the 21st century, and seven of the eight hottest have taken place since 2015. The agency also warns that the meteorological summer continues to lengthen. "By late May, temperatures more typical of July were recorded across large parts of the country. But in September, already in the meteorological autumn, another heatwave was recorded which, provisionally, ran between 2 and 7 September, lasting six days and affecting 16 provinces". Only in four other years has an extreme heatwave been recorded in a month of September (1987, 1988, 2006 and 2016), with conditions more typical of the dog days of summer. Heavy winter rains have kept Spanish reservoirs in an optimal state after the summer season, with an average of 62.58% despite tourist pressure and above half of their capacity in basins that are usually under strain, such as the Júcar, Segura, Andalusian Mediterranean and Catalan basins. That has not spared the country, as in the rest of Europe, from major wildfires which have laid bare the lack of forest-fire prevention, as well as of sufficient personnel with decent working conditions, in regions such as Madrid, Aragon and Castile and Leon.