El Niño is already a reality. It has been developing for months in the Pacific Ocean with a constant warming of subtropical waters, and from the outset it has been labeled a super-Niño, as the oceanic temperature anomaly is the highest recorded to date. The latest data indicate that these waters have exceeded 4 ºC above the average, a value never seen since records began.

Discomfort, repetitive checks on the mobile phone and anguish at not knowing what they will find when the flames allow them to access their municipalities. Four days after the start of the fire that has already scorched 10,000 hectares of the Espadà mountain range - in a perimeter of up to 75.5 km -, a green lung and an identity symbol of the regions of Castelló, the atmosphere in the pavilion of the Valencian town of Nules is one of exhaustion. Also contradictory feelings due to the desire to regain normality and the fear of realizing that what was once a natural treasure is now just ash. "I'm not ready to go back and see it all burnt, I know I'll need time," summarizes Yolany Dávila, a resident of La Vilavella.

Race against time to try to stabilize the fire that since Saturday has been devouring the Espadà mountain range, the green lung of the north of the Valencian Country and an identity symbol of the regions of Castelló. So far, the fire has burned more than 8,500 hectares, has reached a perimeter of 72 kilometers and has forced the evacuation of 16,000 people from 18 towns and the confinement of 64,000 — from the cities of Onda, la Vall d'Uixó and Betxí —. This Monday evening, it was confirmed that 6,000 residents from four neighborhoods in la Vall d’Uixó could return home, although they had to remain confined until this Tuesday at eight in the morning. At an early hour, restrictions in other towns will also be assessed.

After a weekend of immense efforts to extinguish them, the flames continue to ravage various parts of the State affected by the fires. The forest fire that originated on Wednesday in Burgohondo (Ávila) has burned 50,000 hectares and covers a perimeter of about 280 kilometers. According to the third vice-president of the Spanish government, Sara Aagesen, it has become the largest in recent history in the State. This Sunday afternoon, the wind still gave it more strength, and since Friday it has become complicated due to the simultaneity with the Madrid fire, which has affected more than 25,000 hectares. Added to the 2,000 that have also been scorched in Toledo, this front – which ishas been jointly fighting as a single fire since Saturday– has burned 77,000 hectares in total. In addition, it has affected 90,000 people: 60,000 evacuated and 30,000 confined.

The fires in Madrid and Ávila continue without control. Mid-morning, seeing the evolution of the fires, the Military Emergencies Unit (UME) decided to create a “unified emergency command” to work with a single sector: “It is the best way to manage and save time”, justified Francisco Javier Marcos, head of the UME, from the advanced command post in Cenicientos. “Treating this catastrophe and this fire as one [...] will contribute to the efficiency, coordination, and agility of all the decisions we make”, he stressed. But the presence of the authorities in this municipality eighty kilometers from the capital was numbered. In the evening, the territory under joint operational direction was also extended to the province of Toledo.

Barcelona suffers from a serious problem of nocturnal warming, which particularly affects the elderly and causes more deaths during the night than during the day. This is one of the main conclusions reached by the authors of two pending publications from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). The authors attribute this reality to, among other factors, the lack of sufficient public alert measures and the fact that the energy performance certification system for homes in Spain has become outdated.

Little could they imagine that their research on the role of freshwater ecosystems in the climate crisis would end up becoming an epic and risky adventure into the unknown. In 2022, a small group of Catalan researchers embarked on an expedition in the purest Shackleton style to the heart of the Aral Sea. What decades ago had been the fourth largest freshwater lake in the world and one of the main climatic regulators of Central Asia, is today a desolate desert of sand and salt, a vestige of one of the greatest environmental disasters caused by human action. 

The heatwave that choked much of Western and Central Europe in late June also led to a surge in deaths on the continent. According to data published by EuroMOMO – a network that, with the support of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization, maps excess mortality compared to other years – European countries registered more than 10,000 deaths above average during the days of the unprecedented intense and widespread heat episode.

The meteorological conditions in the area of the Bisbal d'Empordà fire have been very adverse for most of the hours it has been active. Throughout Friday and Saturday, the fire burned uncontrollably in the Gavarres massif, but on Saturday night, the Firefighters were able to stabilize it. Its extinction is not expected until at least the middle of the week, if there are no flare-ups.

Catalonia has closed the month of June with more than 200 deaths attributable to heat, according to estimates of mortality attributable to heat from the Daily Mortality Monitoring System (MoMo) of the Carlos III Health Institute. It is the highest figure in a June since records began. MoMo is the only tool that allows us to map deaths that occur daily in the State almost in real time, which are calculated using the excess mortality indicator; that is, how many deaths that occur [observed] exceed those that were expected [estimated] in a given territory and period.

Every June 8, World Oceans Day invites us to reflect on the health of this vast blue frontier that regulates life on Earth. This year, the commemoration arrives with an air of cautious victory following the historic adoption by the UN of the High Seas Treaty, a legal framework designed to protect biodiversity in waters that do not belong to any country and which represent two-thirds of the marine surface. However, to understand the global health of the ocean, sometimes you have to look at what is small. 

A new episode of intense and widespread heat is setting record highs across much of Western and Central Europe. Sustained high temperatures for several days and sleepless nights are affecting countries accustomed to heat this week—though not this early—such as France, Catalonia, Spain, and Italy, and parts of the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Germany, where it is increasingly less exceptional for the mercury to soar. The impact of the heatwave on health is high, and several states have issued meteorological alerts to warn the population of dehydration, heatstroke, and even death.

When Meg Lowman (New York, 1953) began climbing trees in the 1980s, hardly anyone studied forest canopies. That world suspended among the branches was, in large part, an unknown territory. Forty-five years later, this American ecologist is considered one of the pioneers in forest canopy research.

After the intense heat of recent days and experiencing the warmest spring since records began, the astronomical summer will officially begin this Sunday at 10:24 AM, even though it seems to have set in weeks ago. And it will arrive in grand style, as the first heatwave of the year will also kick off. The anticyclone and the gust of warm air from North Africa will strengthen, driven by southerly winds that will cause a low-pressure system located in the Atlantic.

Cats are beautiful, elegant, mysterious. “And my hand intoxicates itself with the pleasure / of touching your electric body,” wrote the poet Charles Baudelaire about his cat, Tibère. For about 10,000 years we have lived with these felines more or less harmoniously. But recently scientists have been demonstrating that their large proliferation is seriously affecting biodiversity, as shown by a pioneering study carried out in Sant Cugat del Vallès.

Catalonia is advancing unstoppably towards an increasingly warm and dry climate. 2025 has been the fourth consecutive year with an annual temperature of more than 2°C above the average of the pre-industrial period (1850-1900). Therefore, since 2022, temperatures have soared like never before. And they have been exceptionally warm. These last four years mark the path towards the worst predictions of the impact of the climate crisis and global warming in our country.

A universal public subsidy of 150 euros per month that can only be spent on agroecological and local food. This is the Food Social Security system proposed by a report from the cooperative el Pa Sencer, which was presented this Tuesday in Barcelona at an event chaired by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Sofía Monsalve Suárez.

Almost all children in the world face at least one climate threat. But nearly half – about 1.1 billion children – are exposed to three different climate threats that put their health and survival at risk, according to the report Children’s climate risk report 2026, published this Tuesday by Unicef.

Climate change will profoundly alter the dynamics of sea breezes in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. This will cause more pollutant gases such as ozone to be retained over coastal areas and increase the health risk for millions of people. This is according to a study by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), which has projected the evolution of sea breezes and air quality according to the climate change scenarios predicted for 2050 and 2100.

Global warming is advancing and temperatures continue to rise relentlessly. This spring has been no exception. In fact, Catalonia has experienced the warmest spring since records began, according to data from the seasonal climate bulletin published by the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat). This report covers the three months of meteorological spring – March, May, and June – even though astronomical summer will not officially arrive until June 21.