Spain attributes over 1,000 excess deaths to heat in second-hottest June ever
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/spain-attributes-over-1000-excess-deaths-heat-second-hottest-june-ever-2026-07-01/By Reuters
July 1, 2026 4:21 AM EDT
MADRID, July 1 (Reuters) - Spain recorded 1,029 excess deaths last month attributable to heat, official data showed on Wednesday, as a five-day heatwave with temperatures surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) made it the second-hottest month of June on record.
- Data on the Health Ministry's daily mortality monitoring system MoMo showed this June had the most deaths attributed to heat since the same month in 2015.
- Average temperatures last month were 3.2 degrees higher than normal, weather agency AEMET said, making it the second-hottest June on record after June 2025.
- At the heatwave's peak on June 23, 35.7 million people roughly 73% of the country's population were exposed to health risks due to the heat; 38% of them faced high risk.
- There have been 12 heatwaves in June since 1975, with half of them occurring in the past decade.
- The 13 hottest months of June since records began in 1961 all occurred in the 21st century.
- This is evidence that heatwaves appear at the beginning of summer with a higher frequency than before, said AEMET spokesperson Ruben del Campo.
- Between June 1 and 30, 165 maximum temperature records 145 of them monthly and 20 all-time and 225 highest minimum temperature records 180 monthly and 45 all-time were broken at local measuring stations, AEMET said.
- The first heatwave of the summer was exceptional in the country's north "not only because of its intensity, but also because of its duration and persistence," the agency added.