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LAST UPDATE | 30 Jun
SPAIN’S NATIONAL WEATHER agency has said temperatures in the south of the country soared to 46 degrees Celsius on Saturday, a new record for June.
The mercury climbed to its new high at 3.40pm Irish time in Huelva, near the border with Portugal, edging out the previous record, 45.2 degrees that was set in 1965 in Seville, it said.
Spain is among the European countries currently in the grips of a punishing heatwave, with France, Italy and Portugal also sweltering for several days. The heatwave is expected to last until Wednesday.
The last three years have been the hottest on record for Spain, according to weather authorities.
“This is unprecedented,” Agner Pannier-Runacher, France’s ecology transition minister said as a record 84 of the nation’s 96 mainland departments were placed on the second-highest “orange’ heat alert.
Only a small sliver of the country in the northwest was not sweltering, according to the Meteo France weather service, which said the heatwave was due to peak on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The summer’s first major heatwave has seen authorities in the countries along the Mediterranean’s northern coast urging people to seek shelter.
Ambulances stood on standby near tourist hotspots as experts warned that such heatwaves, intensified by climate change, would become more frequent.
Heatwave conditions will affect much of Continental Europe through the next week, but with the focus of the most anomalous heat moving southeast with time
— Met Office (@metoffice) June 29, 2025
Temperatures are expected to be 5-10°C above normal fairly widely, with some locations continuing to exceed 40°C 🌡️ pic.twitter.com/FybWBzpckW
Firefighters were on standby after blazes broke out in France and Turkey on Sunday, fed by the heat and strong winds.
Already last week, Greek firefighters had to battle a forest blaze on the coast south of Athens that forced some evacuations.
Spain’s weather service AEMET said temperatures in Extremadura and Andalusia, in the south and southwest, reached up to 44 degrees on Sunday.
In Madrid, where temperatures approached 40 degrees, 32-year-old photographer Diego Radames told AFPTV: “I feel that the heat we’re experiencing is not normal for this time of year.
“As the years go by, I have the feeling that Madrid is getting hotter and hotter, especially in the city centre,” he added.
In Italy, 21 cities across the length of the country were on high alert for extreme heat, including Milan, Naples, Venice, Florence, Rome and Catania.
“We were supposed to be visiting the Colosseum, but my mum nearly fainted,” said British tourist Anna Becker, who had travelled to Rome from a “muggy, miserable” Verona.
Hospital emergency departments across Italy have reported a 10% increase in heatstroke cases, according to Mario Guarino, vice president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine.
“It is mainly elderly people, cancer patients or homeless people, presenting with dehydration, heat stroke, fatigue,” he told AFP.
Several areas in the southern half of Portugal, including Lisbon, were under a red warning until Monday night, said the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
Two-thirds of Portugal was also on high alert for extreme heat and forest fires on Sunday, as was the Italian island of Sicily, where firefighters tackled 15 blazes on Saturday.
Scientists say climate change is stoking hotter and more intense heatwaves, particularly in cities where the so-called “urban heat island” effect amplifies temperatures among tightly packed buildings.
“The heat waves in the Mediterranean region have become more frequent and more intense in recent years,” said Emanuela Piervitali, a researcher at the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA).
“A further increase in temperature and heat extremes is expected in the future, so we will have to get used to temperatures with peaks even higher than those we are experiencing now,” she told AFP.
The heat is also attracting invasive species, which are thriving in the more tropical climes.
ISPRA launched a campaign this week urging fishermen and tourists alike to report sightings of four “potentially dangerous” venomous species.
The lionfish, silver-cheeked toadfish, dusky spinefoot and marbled spinefoot are beginning to appear in waters off southern Italy as the Mediterranean warms, it said.
In France, experts warned that the heat was also severely hitting biodiversity.
Unsure of what exactly is happening with the earth’s climate? Check out our FactCheck Knowledge Bank for essential reads and guides to finding good information online.
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