The sea reaches a record temperature in a Spain overwhelmed by heat

The water temperature on the coasts of Spain reached a record high for this time, reported the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet). According to Aemet readings in the Spanish coastal areas, the sea temperature reached an average of 24.6 °C in mid-July, some 2.2 degrees higher than normal for the season.

The figure “far exceeds the records of the two previously warmest years”, 2015 (24 °C) and 2022 (23.7 °C) and is “unprecedented for mid-July in the entire historical series” that began in 1940, Aemet said on Twitter.

This situation, in a context of global warming of the oceans, is even more worrisome since summer is far from over, according to an Aemet spokesman, Rubén del Campo.

“There is still a way for the sea to continue to warm up more”, both in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic, said the spokesman, who specified that temperatures above 28ºC have been registered in the southeastern tip of the peninsula in the Mediterranean.

Spain has suffered a heat wave since the beginning of the week, the third of the summer, caused by the anticyclone Charon in the west of the Mediterranean basin.

On Wednesday, several southern and southeastern provinces were on red alert and temperatures exceeded 44 °C in the municipality of Alhama (Murcia) and 43 °C in other areas of the provinces of Murcia, Málaga and Cádiz, according to Aemet.

On Tuesday, the thermometers marked 45.4 °C in Figueres, Catalonia, an absolute record for the northeastern region of Spain, according to Aemet.

In addition, in almost all of Spain, except for northern areas, there is a “very high” or “extreme” risk of forest fires, he warned.