MADRID: Mainland Spain sizzled in its warmest September since records began in 1961, with exceptional heat effectively making it another summer month, national weather agency AEMET said on Friday.
The announcement is the latest in a series of new temperature records this year across Europe, scorched by successive summer heatwaves that scientists say were turbo-charged by human-driven climate change.
The average temperature in September was 22.5C, 3.4C above the norm for the 1991-2020 reference period, said AEMET, with the unprecedented reading coming after Spain's hottest summer on record.
It was the first time the figure for September exceeded the average summer temperature of 22.1C for the 1991-2020 period, AEMET added in a statement.
The country equalled its all-time heat record for the month when 45.7C was registered in the southwestern municipality of El Granado on Sep 3.
AEMET briefly issued the highest red alert for heat in small areas of the southern region of Andalusia in September, the first time such warnings had been sent in the month since they started in 2007.
Last month was also extremely dry, recording just 36% of the normal rainfall expected in September in mainland Spain based on the 1991-2020 reference period.
Extreme temperatures have been linked to tens of thousands of excess deaths across the continent, as well as disrupting daily life and the economy through drought and low river levels.