The country endured a record 16-day heatwave last month that fuelled widlfires that killed four people and which the Carlos III Health Institute estimates caused more than 1,100 deaths -- mostly over-65s.
"For most of August, temperatures were above average, with a notable prolonged and intense heat wave occurring between August 3 and 18," the agency said in a statement.
"During this period, both daily maximum and minimum temperatures were well above the average," it added.
AEMET has previously said that last month's heatwave was "the most intense on record", with average temperatures 4.6C above previous events.
Since it began keeping records in 1975, AEMET has registered 77 heatwaves in Spain, with six going 4C or more above the average.
Five of those have been since 2019.
More than 380,000 hectares (nearly 1,500 square miles) have burned this year -- a record annual total and nearly five times the annual average, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.
The bulk of the land was ravaged in August, when massive blazes hit the northwest and west of Spain, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.
Scientists say climate change is driving longer, more intense and more frequent heatwaves worldwide.
Human-caused climate change made the hot, dry and windy conditions that fuelled the deadly wildfires in Spain and neighbouring Portugal last month 40 times more likely, researchers said Thursday in a report published by World Weather Attribution.
Portugal records hottest, driest summer since 1931: weather agency
Lisbon (AFP) Sept 5, 2025 -
Portugal this year recorded its hottest and driest summer in nearly a century, with temperatures 1.5C above the average for 1991-2020 and just under a quarter of normal rainfall, the national meteorological agency said Friday.
The average maximum temperature settled at an unprecedented 30.78C this summer -- 2.09C higher than usual, and the highest figure since records began in 1931.
The summer months were also the driest since records began with just 24 percent of the normal rainfall during the 1991-2020 period, the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) said.
Portugal spent the summer battling three brutal heatwaves, with the latest lasting for 16 days from July 29 until August 17.
A total of 33 areas reached the maximum average temperature in June.
Mora, a municipality 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Lisbon, topped the chart with temperatures of 46.6C.
In August, fatal forest fires in the northern and central parts of the country killed four people, injured several more, devastated the local environment and ravaged 254,000 hectares (nearly 1,000 square miles) of land.
The extent of the damage made the fires the deadliest incident to occur since 2017 floods that killed hundreds of people, according to data from Portugal's Institute of Forests (ICNF).
Related Links
Weather News at TerraDaily.com
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
