Temperatures of up to 45C expected this weekend as hot air moves up from north Africa

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Two people have died from apparent heatstroke in Spain and parts of the country are on red alert as the first heatwave of the summer tightens its grip on the Iberian peninsula, with temperatures as high as 45C (113F) forecast for the weekend.

A mass of exceptionally hot air began moving up from Africa on Wednesday, causing temperatures of 44C in some areas of Spain by Friday afternoon.

Two provinces in the western region of Extremadura have been placed on red alert, as has the Salamanca province of Castilla y León, and parts of the usually temperate north-western region of Galicia.

Madrid and most of central and south-western Spain were on orange alert, with temperatures as high as 40C predicted.

Despite the surging temperatures, however, most of the Spanish coastline will be spared the worst of the weekend’s heat, with the Costa del Sol due to experience normal conditions for the time of year.

Authorities in the south-eastern region of Murcia confirmed that the high temperatures had claimed two lives this week and told people to take care of themselves and others.

“A 78-year-old man died on Thursday while working in his vegetable garden,” said a spokeswoman for the regional health ministry. “The exact cause of death has yet to be confirmed, but everything points to heatstroke. A 41-year-old man died of heatstroke on Wednesday while working on the motorway.

“It’s going to be very hot this weekend and people need to protect themselves.”

Spain’s meteorological office, Aemet, predicted highs of 45C on Saturday, but said it did not expect temperatures to surpass the European record of 48C set in Athens in 1977.

“We’re in a heatwave that will last until Monday, and temperatures will begin to drop noticeably on Tuesday and Wednesday,” Rubén del Campo, an Aemet spokesman, said.

“There’s been a lot of talk about temperatures reaching 48C in Portugal, which is also immersed in a heatwave, but it doesn’t look as though those records are going to be broken. The highest temperature recorded in Portugal is around 47C while in Spain it 46.9C. It could get up to 45C-46C in Portugal, but I don’t think we’ll see temperature records broken in Iberian countries.”

Del Campo did warn, however, of an extremely high risk of forest fires across the peninsula. More than 120 military firefighters, supported by three firefighting planes, were tackling one blaze that had forced the evacuation of 22 people in the western Andalusian province of Huelva on Friday.



“People need to take care not to start forest fires when they head out into the countryside as the conditions are so hot and so dry,” he said.

Portugal’s weather agency, IPMA, said eight places in the central, southern and eastern areas of the country had broken their local temperature records during the heatwave.

It said the highest temperature recorded on Thursday was 45.2C near Abrantes, 93 miles (150km) north-east of Lisbon.

Meteorologists say the hot air mass moving northward from Africa was also bringing dust from the Sahara desert.

Emergency services issued a red alert, placing extra medical staff and firefighters on standby until Sunday.

As the hashtag #CalorMortal (#DeadlyHeat) began trending on Twitter, the Spanish health ministry told people to drink lots of water, limit their consumption of alcohol and caffeine and keep an eye on vulnerable members of the community such as children and elderly people.



Alfonso García Cobaleda, a cattle farmer in one of the hottest parts of Spain – Cáceres province in western Extremadura – said temperatures had soared in recent days after a comparatively mild early summer.

“It’s pretty striking,” he said. “You really start to feel it around one or two in the afternoon. You have to have a typical siesta in the afternoon because you just can’t go out between 3pm and 4pm. Yesterday, it was 42C at 8pm.”

García Cobaleda said a local vet, originally from Venezuela, was suffering in the high temperatures and had come down with heatstroke.

“It isn’t a tropical heat here, it’s a really dry, inland heat,” he said. “We’re used to it but she isn’t. The cows are fine because some can go and bathe in the reservoir while others can cool their bellies in ponds. One of our cows went for a dip the other day and decided to have a swim.”

James Blick, the co-founder of Devour Tours, which runs food and culture tours across Spain, said the company had received a call asking whether the trips were still going ahead.

“They are, and our guides say many tourists are adopting Spanish rhythms – staying in their hotels during mid-afternoon and only coming out later in the evening,” said Blick.

“Another guest said they now understood the Spanish habit of walking on the shady side of the street.”

Blick said the company was also handing out paper fans bearing a recipe for sangría to help people stay cool.

“One Chinese guy said last night, ‘This is nothing, it’s hotter in Beijing’. Overall people are handling it, but just drinking a hell of a lot of water.”