Laurence Dollimore
SPAIN has issued a series of red alerts for extreme heat this weekend – the highest warning possible.
It means there is a serious risk to life in the affected areas due to exceedingly high temperatures – which could surpass 40C.
It comes as Friday saw the start of the country’s fourth official heatwave of the summer.
READ MORE: Fourth heatwave of the year to hit Spain this weekend
The red alerts are in place on Sunday in Liebana, Villaverde and inland areas of Gipuzkoa.
Rather uncharacteristically, all three areas are on Spain’s northernmost coastline, between the Basque Country and Cantabria.
Meanwhile, there are no heat warnings in place in the most popular holiday resorts, neither on the coasts of Valencia, Alicante nor Malaga.
There is a yellow alert in place for high temperatures on the Balearic Islands of Mallorca and Ibiza, however, with highs of 37C forecast for Sunday.
It comes as Spain is facing one of its deadliest summers in a decade, according to the latest figures.
A total of 544 people have died as a result of extreme heat in the first week of August alone.
The staggering numbers have come from the Daily Mortality Monitoring System (MoMo9 of the respected Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII).
The figure has only been beaten twice over the past 10 years, in 2018 (599) and 2022 (562).
Compared to last year, the number of heat-related deaths in Spain have increased by 349%, from 121 to 544.
“In many parts of Spain, the thresholds for health impacts due to high temperatures have been exceeded,” Diana Gomez-Barroso, a doctor in Epidemiology and Public Health and head of the ISCIII monitoring system, told El Español.
The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has already activated three special warnings for heat waves in 12 days.
The fourth will begin today and is expected to last until next Monday. The weekend is likely to see the hottest days of this summer, which could lead to an increase in deaths.
The most at-risk areas for fatalities over the coming days, according to the ISCIII are; Alicante, Barcelona, Ciudad Real, Girona, Madrid, Palencia, Pontevedra, Toledo, Valladolid and Zaragoza.
The people most at risk are aged over 65.
The last 10 years show an upward trend in terms of heat-related deaths per year, with 2022 (6,813) and 2023 (5,030) recording the worst figures of the decade.
A report by the MACE app, which monitors heat-related deaths in Spain, is more stark.
It estimates the number of deaths in Spain from January 1 to August 4 this year to be 7,075, making 2024 one of the deadliest of the past 10 years.
