Spain sweltered through hottest summer on record in 2025, weather agency says

Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Authorities in Spain said on Tuesday that this summer was the hottest on record for the southern European country, which like the entire Mediterranean region is being hard hit by climate change.The national weather service said that the country had an average temperature of 24.2 C between 1 June and 31 August.That is the highest temperature since the service started keeping records in 1961.The previous record, 24.1 C, was set in 2022.This summer was also 2.1 degrees Celsius hotter than the national average from 1991-2020.The highest single-day temperature of 45.8 C was recorded in Jerez de la Frontera, in southern Spain, on 17 August during a heat wave.The Mediterranean region is heating up 20% faster than the global average, according to the United Nations.The scorching summer months also saw widespread wildfires in Spain’s countryside.A record 3,820 square kilometres of land was burned, surpassing the previous high of 3,060 set in 2022, according to data compiled by the European Union's European Forest Fire Information System.Spain's weather service added that the country also had a particularly dry summer, especially in the areas of the northwest where wildfires did most of their damage.Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.