MADRID — An extraordinary and unprecedented heat wave swept across the Iberian Peninsula on Thursday, sending temperatures soaring past 40 degrees Celsius in several Spanish and Portuguese cities and killing at least 34 people, according to officials from Spain's State Meteorological Agency, AEMET. The surge, which meteorologists are linking to the same amplified high-pressure system that baked the American Southwest earlier this week, is being described as the most severe March heat event ever recorded in Europe.
In Seville, temperatures reached 42.1°C — shattering the city's previous March record by nearly four degrees. Portuguese authorities in Lisbon reported 41.3°C by midday, prompting the national health ministry to activate its maximum-level heat emergency plan and open 87 cooling centers across the country. Emergency services in both nations reported a sharp spike in heat-stroke hospitalizations, with the elderly and outdoor agricultural workers bearing the heaviest burden.
The World Meteorological Organization issued a rare mid-season advisory Thursday morning, stating that the event was 'statistically inconsistent with historical baselines' and almost certainly intensified by accelerating climate change. WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo called on EU member states to coordinate cross-border emergency health responses, warning that the heat dome could persist through the weekend before a cold front from the north provides relief.
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, based in Reading, England, confirmed that the jet stream has locked into an unusually northward configuration, trapping warm Saharan air across the western Mediterranean. France's Météo-France warned that temperatures in Bordeaux and Toulouse could approach 38°C by Friday, prompting the French government to place several southern departments on red alert. Italy's civil protection agency placed Sicily and Sardinia on orange alert as well.
Environmental advocates and opposition lawmakers in Madrid seized on the crisis to demand immediate action on a stalled national climate adaptation bill. 'This is not a freak anomaly — this is the new March,' said Teresa Ribera, the EU's Executive Vice President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, in a statement from Brussels. 'Every government on this continent must treat extreme heat as a permanent public health emergency, not a seasonal inconvenience.' Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was expected to convene an emergency cabinet meeting Thursday evening to address the crisis.