Spain swelters in first official heatwave of 2026
Madrid baked at 40C as 13 regions went under orange alerts and the Basque Country hit red, turning Spain's first official heatwave into a national stress test.
Spain’s first official heatwave of 2026 turned Sunday into a test of public health and daily life, with temperatures climbing to 40C in parts of the country and much of the peninsula under official alert. At Madrid’s El Rastro flea market, residents and visitors moved slowly through the heat as authorities warned of dehydration, sun exposure and wildfire risk, while AEMET said 13 of Spain’s 17 regions were under orange alert and the Basque Country was on red.
AEMET issued its special heatwave notice on Thursday, June 18, and said the hot spell was set to last until Thursday, June 25. Its forecast for Sunday called for temperatures of up to 38C across large parts of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, with 40C possible in the interior of the Basque Country, the Ebro, Tajo, Guadiana and Guadalquivir valleys. The agency’s long-running heatwave study, which covers data since 1975, gives Spain a standardized way to track episodes like this one, but the practical burden is immediate: older adults, outdoor workers, transport users and event organizers all face growing risk.
In Madrid, the strain was visible in the market crowds and in the people trying to work through the heat. Ana Garces, a 49-year-old social educator, said the weather was exhausting. Haily San Cesario, a 22-year-old engineer visiting from Miami, carried a small electric fan and dressed in white to try to cope with the temperature.
The heatwave was also rippling beyond Spain’s borders. France imposed partial alcohol restrictions, Germany issued nationwide warnings, and rail operator SNCF urged vulnerable people not to take trains. In Spain, a soccer fan zone was shut down because of the conditions, underscoring how quickly extreme heat can force changes to transport, leisure and public gathering plans.
AEMET says Spain’s national preventive plan for the health effects of excessive temperatures has been activated every summer from May through September since 2004. That framework is now being pushed by a hotter baseline, and by a spell severe enough to move from inconvenience to emergency. With meteorologists warning that the heat would persist through June 25, the question is no longer whether Spain is feeling the heat, but whether its adaptation measures are moving fast enough to meet it.
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