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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 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 per cent of the country’s population – were exposed to health risks due to the heat, with 38 per cent of them facing 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.

Meanwhile, parts of Portugal have been placed on red alert due to high temperatures forecast for the coming days, after being relatively spared from the recent heatwave in Europe.
The country’s IPMA weather agency said the Lisbon and Setúbal regions on the coast will be on red alert for high temperatures on Thursday.
That will be extended on Friday to the Leiria and Coimbra areas further north, where temperatures could hit 44 degrees in places.
An orange alert was imposed on Wednesday for four inland regions, including Évora, where 41 degrees could be reached, the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) said.
The second-highest warning will be extended to all regions not on red alert, it added.
‘Uncharted territory’
The world’s oceans also just experienced their hottest June on record with fresh highs possible in the months ahead as El Nino and climate change drive temperatures even higher, scientists said on Wednesday.
Global average sea surface temperatures in June were 20.98 degrees Celsius, beating the previous records of 2023 and 2024, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Marine Service.

The record capped six months of near-unprecedented ocean warmth in 2026, with prolonged marine heatwaves, the service said.
Average sea temperatures in the first half of the year were 20.04 degrees, slightly below the high set in the same period in 2024.
And scientists said the onset of a potentially powerful El Nino weather pattern could boost global heat in the oceans and atmosphere even further in 2026 and into next year.
“Current conditions could indicate the beginning of a new phase, leading, once more, to uncharted territory,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus Climate Change Service, the EU’s climate monitor.
“With ocean temperatures at these levels and El Nino on the horizon, we are likely to see more temperature records fall in the coming months,” Buontempo said in a statement.


El Nino is marked by unusually warm waters in parts of the Pacific Ocean, releasing more heat into the atmosphere and influencing wind, cloud and weather patterns around the globe.
This can raise the risk of weather extremes ranging from floods in Peru to droughts in parts of Africa and wildfires in Australia.
But it can also cause a temporary spike in global temperatures, compounding the long-term warming caused by humanity’s burning of fossil fuels.
Land and sea temperatures reached an all-time high in 2024 at the tail end of the last El Nino.

“With the arrival and the onset of an El Nino year … we can expect that 2026 will be among the warmest (ever) recorded,” Simon Van Gennip, lead Oceanographer for the Copernicus Marine Service, said in a news briefing.
“This is due to El Nino … but also from the warming due to the greenhouse gas emissions we continue to provide for the atmosphere,” Van Gennip said.
‘Deepening crisis’
The report follows a warning issued in a major UN scientific assessment last month which declared that the world’s oceans were in a “deepening crisis” as seas were warming and rising faster.
Oceans are a key regulator of Earth’s climate because they absorb some 90 per cent of the excess heat caused by humanity’s release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
Warmer oceans increase moisture in the atmosphere, providing fuel for tropical cyclones and destructive rainfall.

Hotter seas also directly contribute to sea level rise – water expands when it warms up – and create unbearable conditions for tropical reefs, whose corals can bleach and die during prolonged marine heatwaves.
The first six months of the year were marked by widespread marine heatwaves that affected around 82 per cent of the world’s oceans, the second-largest extent after 2024, according to Copernicus Marine Service.
Marine heatwaves – prolonged periods of unusually high sea temperatures – can affect weather, trigger coral bleaching and prove fatal for marine wildlife.
Global sea surface temperatures varied in the first half of the year, according to the service, which is run by Mercator Ocean International, an EU-backed non-profit organisation.
The Mediterranean broke its June record at 24.3 degrees, surpassing the previous highs set in 2023 and 2025.
A marine heatwave affecting the northwestern Mediterranean broke a record intensity measurement on Monday after a week that saw temperature records tumble in Europe, a Spanish climate institute said.
The tropical Pacific also had its hottest June ever at 27.26 degrees.
The region matched its 2016 record for the January-to-June period, with the strongest and most persistent warming in the western equatorial Pacific and off the coasts of Peru and California.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


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Extreme weather

A tourist drinks water in Barcelona, Spain, on a hot day. File photo: AP

People in Madrid, Spain, walk past a shop selling fans during a heatwave on Thursday. Photo: AFP

The sun rises over the Tagus river in Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday. Temperatures are forecast to rise and stay above average for over a week. Photo: AP

A sea turtle swims among dead corals of a reef in the Maldives in 2023. The world’s oceans have just experienced their hottest June on record. Photo: AFP

People walk past shops during a heatwave in York, England, on June 24. The UK’s meteorological office issued an extremely rare red heat warning – only issued once before – for June 24 and 25. Photo: AFP

A Palestinian woman washes a child at a displacement camp in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, during a heatwave. Photo: AFP

Asia’s ‘dangerous’ humid heatwaves push human body to its limits

Pedestrians use portable fans while walking on a street in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday. Photo: Xinhua

People walk in a street in Hanoi, Vietnam, under scorching heat on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

Passengers wait at a bus stop equipped with water mist to provide relief from heat in Ahmedabad, India, on June 5. Photo: Reuters

A lion licks a block of ice in its enclosure at a zoo during a hot summer day in Lahore, Pakistan, on June 8. Photo: Reuters

A pedestrian uses a fan to beat the heat in Causeway Bay on May 28. Photo: Karma Lo


China’s Politburo urges local governments to evacuate residents in a timely manner and prevent mass casualties from extreme weather. Photo: Xinhua

Heatwave grips Eastern Europe after Germany weather breaks records

A pigeon drinks water amid a heatwave in Budapest, Hungary. Photo: Xinhua

People walk by a water mist machine in Romania’s city of Bucharest. The machine was installed by officials to help with coping in the heat. Photo: AP

Paris mortuaries overwhelmed as Europe’s record heat drives up death toll

Paris' iconic zinc rooftops have absorbed intense heat in recent days. Photo: AFP

Mortuary owner Zouhaeir Hertelli. Photo: AP

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At the heatwave’s peak, June 23, almost 75 per cent of the population were exposed to health risks due to heat. The hottest June was in 2025


At the heatwave’s peak, June 23, almost 75 per cent of the population were exposed to health risks due to heat. The hottest June was in 2025.


Spain blames over 1,000 excess deaths on heatwave, in second-hottest June ever

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}At the heatwave’s peak, June 23, almost 75 per cent of the population were exposed to health risks due to heat. The hottest June was in 2025

At the heatwave’s peak, June 23, almost 75 per cent of the population were exposed to health risks due to heat. The hottest June was in 2025