Spain attributes over 1,000 excess deaths to heat in second-hottestJune ever
MADRID, July 1 (Reuters) – Spain recorded 1,029 excess deaths due to heat last month; The five-day heat wave, in which temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), made June the second hottest month on record, according to official data released Wednesday.
• Data from the Ministry of Health’s daily death monitoring system, MoMo, showed that this June had the highest number of deaths caused by heat since the same month in 2015.
• Weather agency AEMET said average temperatures last month were 3.2 degrees higher than normal, making it the second warmest June on record after June 2025.
• At the height of the heat wave on June 23, 35.7 million people (roughly 73% of the country’s population) were exposed to heat-related health risks; 38 percent of them faced high risk.
• There have been 12 heat waves in June since 1975, half of which have occurred in the last decade.
• All 13 of the hottest months of June since records began in 1961 occurred in the 21st century.
• AEMET spokesman Ruben del Campo said this is evidence that heat waves occur at the beginning of summer with a higher frequency than before.
• AEMET said that between June 1 and 30, 165 maximum temperature records, including 145 monthly and 20 all-time, and 225 highest minimum temperature records, including 180 monthly and 45 all-time, were broken at local measuring stations.
• The first heat wave of the summer was extraordinary in the north of the country “not only because of its intensity, but also because of its duration and persistence”, the agency added.
(Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Joe Bavier)
