101 HEAT-RELATED deaths were reported in May, according to Spain’s Health Ministry- the highest figure for the month since the current measuring system was introduced in 2015.
The total is 3.6 times higher than the average number of heat-related deaths recorded during the month over the past decade.
A late-May heatwave brought record temperatures to 23 provinces, according to the state meteorological agency Aemet.
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Health Minister, Monica Garcia, said: “The problem is no longer only that it is hotter, but that it comes earlier and earlier and our bodies haven’t acclimatised.”
“There is a lack of physiological adaptation and there is no perception of the risk that this entails,” she added.
The head of Health and Climate Change, Hector Tejero, has said that May’s deaths from extreme heat happened mainly in older women in Northern Spain because they are less resilient to higher temperatures.
He explained that heat increases the number of hospitalisations by 10% and occupational accidents increase by up to 17%,.
According to the Health Ministry, an estimated 27,564 people died from causes linked to high temperatures between 2015 and 2025.
The deadliest year was 2022, with 4,789 deaths, followed by 2025 with 3,832.
Health authorities have warned that the risk of death rises by between 9.1% and 10.7% for every degree Celsius that temperatures exceed health-risk thresholds.
The ministry said people over the age of 75 remain the group most vulnerable to extreme heat, while young children, pregnant women and people with chronic illnesses also face elevated risks.
“An entire generation of Spaniards are living in a substantially different climate to the one they knew during their childhood,” Tejero commented.
Weather forecasters are predicting hotter than average temperatures in June, July and August across Spain, particularly in the north, along the Mediterranean coast and in the Balearic Islands.
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