Catalonia experiences the warmest start to summer since records began

BarcelonaExtreme heat is not giving any respite this summer, and data confirms that we are experiencing an exceptionally suffocating and unprecedented period. Catalonia has registered the hottest summer start since 1950, which is when homogeneous and well-distributed climate data for the entire country began to be available. This is the conclusion of the climate balance of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat) published this Thursday.

The report analyzes data extracted from the first half of the meteorological summer, which runs from June 1 to July 15. During this period, the average temperature in Catalonia has exceeded the climatic average by 3.8 ºC, two tenths above the record in effect until now, that of the summer start of 2025. A thermal anomaly that is even more exceptional in the maximum temperature, which is 5 ºC above the average.

“This behavior is the result of the persistence of temperatures much higher than usual for a large part of recent weeks,” explains Marc Prohom, head of the Climatology area of Meteocat, in the report. Since spring, Catalonia has been immersed in episodes of exceptionally high temperatures on a permanent basis. The cherry on top has been the three consecutive heatwaves that have occurred since the end of June.

The report indicates that, since June 21, the threshold of intense heat has been exceeded every day in at least one of the 184 stations of the Meteocat's automatic meteorological station network. At the moments of maximum heat extension, more than a hundred stations have simultaneously exceeded this threshold.

Heat records across the country

The three heatwaves took place the week of Sant Joan, between July 5 and 10, and this week. Episodes that have left many readings of over 40 ºC across the country and have broken numerous daytime and nighttime heat records.

Among all the records, the 40.9 ºC reached on July 8 at the Fabra Observatory in Barcelona stand out, an absolute heat record for this historic climate series with 113 years of records; the 31.9 ºC minimum in Portbou on the night and early morning of July 7 to 8, which was the warmest night since there have been records in all of Catalonia; or the 25.7 ºC minimum on the morning of this Thursday, July 16, in Lleida, the first torrid night recorded in the city in 86 years of data.

During the third heatwave, the warmest air mass of the summer was also recorded. Radiosondages on Wednesday the 15th and the early morning of Thursday the 16th recorded 27.4 °C at 850 hectopascals (hPa), about 1,500 meters in altitude. These values are extraordinary and have only been surpassed in four episodes between 1998 and 2026.

Forecasts indicate that temperatures will remain above average for quite a few more days, and there will be marked heat and sultriness and warm nights, but without the extremes reached during the last heatwaves.