Spain endures 61 days of heatwave and records its hottest summer on record

Published on 09/09/2026 - 20:16 GMT+2•Updated 10/09/2026 - 10:27 GMT+2

Spain has surpassed the scorching summer of 2022, with a total of 61 heatwave days endured this year, compared with 41 previously, according to the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).

The summer of 2026 has also recorded an average temperature of 24.5°C, making it the hottest since records began in 1961 and surpassing last year, 2025, by 0.3°C, and 2.4°C above the long-term average.

Aemet recalls that the 10 hottest summers on record have all occurred in the 21st century, and seven of the eight warmest have taken place since 2015. The agency also warns that the meteorological summer keeps getting longer.

"At the end of May, temperatures typical of July were recorded across large areas of the country. And then, in September, already in the meteorological autumn, there was another heatwave which, provisionally, ran from the 2nd to the 7th, lasting six days and affecting 16 provinces."

September heat, rainfall and wildfires: Spain outlook

Only in four other years has a month of September (1987, 1988, 2006 and 2016) seen such extreme heatwaves, more typical of the height of summer.

The heavy winter rains have meant that Spanish reservoirs have remained in very good condition after the summer season, with an average level of 62.58 per cent despite tourist pressure, and above half of their capacity in basins that are usually under stress, such as the Júcar, Segura, Andalusian Mediterranean and Catalan catchments.

Even so, this has not spared the country from suffering, as in the rest of Europe, large-scale fires that have exposed the lack of forest fire prevention and of sufficient personnel with good working conditions, in regions such as Madrid, Aragón or Castilla y León.