6 Jul, 2025 @ 11:30
3 mins read

The Olive Press takes a journey into the boiling interior of Sevilla province in search of Spain’s 46C  

AS the record-breaking heatwave took hold spreading its tendrils from the Sahara into Europe, the Olive Press went heat chasing.

Just as storm-chasers like to get up close and personal with tornadoes and hurricanes, we went to death-defying meteorological phenomena and came up with a new one: the heat chaser.

Weather forecasters had already bandied about the possibility of Spain seeing 46C while still in the month of June, and we wanted to be there to feel it hit us in the face.

So we set out for Ecija, a charming Sevillian town of baroque spires affectionately known as the frying pan of Spain.

READ MORE: ‘Remain indoors as much as possible’: New Spain heatwave could reach 46C in ‘hottest June ever’

Ecija is a city of baroque architecture in the province of Sevilla. Walter Finch

Located in the Guadalquivir Valley in a geographical depression that traps the oppressive inland heat, Ecija has registered temperatures of over 46C in the peak summer months before (ie. not June).

In fact, it is just down the road from where Spain’s all-time record heat of 47.6C, recorded in Cordoba in August 2021. 

“It’s criminal the heat that we have to endure here, but we manage,” Marga, Ecija resident born-and-bred, told the Olive Press.

READ MORE: UK heatwave is causing Brits to last-minute cancel holidays to ‘too hot’ Spain

Ecija local Marga said that the extreme temperatures were nothing unusual for the town

During the peak summer months, as the sun inches its way higher into the sky, the Ecija residents scurry to the shadows.

The day starts full of life and activity. Tables and chairs go out on the broad central square, Plaza España, around 8am – when the temperature is only 30C.

The abuelos and the workers occupy the tables and queue up at the bar windows to collect their cafe con leches con hielo – ice coffee.

READ MORE: Barcelona records highest-ever June temperature – as investigation launched into death of female street cleaner, 51

Ecija lives by night during the summer – no one goes out before 9pm. Walter Finch

The shops are open and people go about their business. But there are no tourists. 

Despite the abundant beauty of the baroque towers, the elegant palaces and the Roman mosaics, this is the off-season. It seems that heatwave tourism is not a thing in Sevilla province – not yet.

Even by 10.30am, people are sticking to the shade, creeping along the walls like the shadows they are sheltering in. It hit around 36C at this hour.

By midday, it’s a ghost town. It’s like a scene from one of those old westerns, in which everyone knows there’s a gunfight imminent and disappears behind their curtains – except for the Olive Press.

It’s not that we’re brave. We were just oblivious.

READ MORE: ‘It spiked by 3C in 90 minutes’: Weather expert casts doubt on Spain’s new 46C June record 

Jon and Mihail, two Romanians living in Ecija, said it was tough to adapt to the heat at first

The hammer really starts to fall around 2pm, when it hit 40C.

The tables and chairs are still out – but no one is sitting on them. Instead, the citizens of Ecija can be found in the air-conditioned indoors.

“I was born here, I grew up in this – but obviously I suffer,” Tamara, 24, a waitress in the main square, tells the Olive Press.

“Fortunately no one sits at the tables in the plaza during the day so I don’t have to run about as much. But it’s still hard.”

READ MORE: Number of days over 40C by start of June in Spain doubled all previous days on record COMBINED

Waitress Tamara, 24, said she was lucky no one sits outside on the terrace during the day

In the tightening grip of the heatwave, is this something new? The choral response from everyone we spoke with in the town was ‘no – it’s the same heat as always.’

Business as usual. But the heat has come earlier this summer, they concede.

In the afternoon, news comes through that Spain has broken its heat record for June – 200km to the west.

READ MORE: New provisional June record of 46C set in Spain as Portugal gets red alert and France and Italy fry in 40C

Known as the frying pan of Spain, Ecija sits in a depression that traps the summer heat

While they got 46C in El Granado, we didn’t get above 43C in Ecija.

It was still hot in the frying pan of Spain. But was it hot enough to fry an egg, as the old cliche went?

By 4pm the bars have all closed and the central plaza has been roasting in uninterrupted sun for over six hours.

Even to sit on one of the stone benches was enough to fry one’s behind. We procured an egg and cracked it onto the burning surface.

Forecasters are fearing that Spain will get a 50C day one summer soon

Did the egg white start sizzling? Did it whiten at the edges? Did the yoke harden? Long story short it did not. Instead we just had raw egg mess on a bench.

So it wasn’t record-breaking heat in the frying pan, but dealing with it was still a way of life. The town didn’t start to come back to life till after 9pm.

“Here, we live by night,” Jon and Mihail, a pair of Romanians gearing up for Saturday night, told the Olive Press. 

“Yes, it was hard to get used to at first, but it’s only two months a year.”

Given the premature nature of this heatwave, they might have to extend their endurance in the coming years.

Click here to read more Olive Press Travel News from The Olive Press.

Walter Finch

Walter Finch, who comes from a background in video and photography, is keen on reporting on and investigating organised crime, corruption and abuse of power. He is fascinated by the nexus between politics, business and law-breaking, as well as other wider trends that affect society.
Born in London but having lived in six countries, he is well-travelled and worldly. He studied Philosophy at the University of Birmingham and earned his diploma in journalism from London's renowned News Associates during the Covid era.
He got his first break in the business working on the Foreign News desk of the Daily Mail's online arm, where he also helped out on the video desk.
He then decided to escape the confines of London and returned to Spain in 2022, having previously lived in Barcelona for many years.
He took up up a reporter role with the Olive Press Newspaper and today he is based in La Linea de la Concepcion at the heart of a global chokepoint and crucial maritime hub, where he edits the Olive Press Gibraltar edition.
He is also the deputy news editor across all editions of the newspaper.

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