Spain Braces for 45°C: Third Heatwave of Summer Hits

Spain's state weather agency, AEMET, has issued a special warning for the country's third heatwave of the summer. The agency forecasts extreme temperatures, which could locally reach 44 or 45 degrees Celsius on Wednesday and Thursday. The affected area is large. It includes the southeastern third of the country, the Guadalquivir and Ebro river valleys, northeastern depressions, Pyrenean valleys, and inland areas of Mallorca. The heatwave is expected to last at least until next Thursday, the 23rd. AEMET notes that uncertainty is high, and the heat could continue beyond that date. The agency will update its information tomorrow and advises the public to follow its forecasts and warnings on www.aemet.es. This follows a deadly second heatwave in early July, which caused 622 deaths in Spain in just five days. The situation is also alarming across Europe. Between June 22 and 28, France's public health agency Santé publique France provisionally counted 2,025 additional deaths from high temperatures. Experts warn that the final number will be higher, as pressure on hospitals often continues for days after each heatwave. These deaths are not always from direct heatstroke. As Diana Gómez Barroso, head of the Daily Mortality Monitoring System (MoMo) at Spain's National Center for Epidemiology, explained, many deaths occur because heat aggravates existing illnesses. Meanwhile, a scientific assessment has identified the "unequivocal" cause of the heatwave sweeping Europe: climate change, driven by fossil fuel emissions.