Heatwave causes 101 deaths in Spain in record May toll

Spain has recorded its highest number of heat-related deaths for May since monitoring began in 2015, the country’s Health Ministry said on June 3, following a period of unusually high temperatures across parts of Europe.

According to estimates from Spain’s daily mortality monitoring system, the country registered 101 deaths linked to elevated temperatures in May 2026, marking the highest figure for that month since records began, Caliber.Az reports, citing Reuters.

Officials said the toll is 3.6 times higher than the average for May over the past decade, underscoring the health impact of extreme heat even before the official start of the northern hemisphere summer.

The monitoring system, known as MoMo, estimates that 27,564 deaths in Spain between 2015 and 2025 were attributable to high temperatures.

Data shows that 2022 was the deadliest year on record with 4,789 heat-related deaths, followed by 2025 with 3,832.

The Health Ministry also noted that the risk of mortality increases by between 9.1% and 10.7% for each degree that temperatures rise above established health risk thresholds.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov