In Spain, the thermometer approached 40°C in April in many cities, such as Cordoba or Seville. Prayers and processions are even organized to bring the rain. In the heart of Cordoba, the heat is stifling. A woman on the ground has just lost consciousness: she had a fainting spell in the middle of a tourist visit in a city that broke a record on April 27. 38.8°C in Andalusia: never seen in mainland Spain in the middle of April. In Seville, in the afternoon of April 28, the mercury was still flirting with 35°C. A city guide made the decision to cancel all the tours of the day. "In the hottest hours, it's almost impossible to be on the street, we can't risk the health of our clients," he says.
l This early heat wave, unprecedented since weather records began, is not sparing the rest of the country where, everywhere, temperature records for an April could be broken.
"After an abnormally hot and dry March, we have had temperatures of 15 °C above normal for a month of April, summarizes the president of the Spanish Association of Climatology (Aeclim), Alberto Marti Ezpeleta. The curves seem to indicate that climate change is accelerating and the Iberian Peninsula is particularly exposed to it because of its geographical position. Subtropical highs are staying longer and longer over the southern and Mediterranean half, and periods of drought are more frequent and intense."
