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Spain Registers Hottest Summer On Record With PM Warning Of Climate Emergency

Spain News

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned of a climate emergency on Monday with the country registering its hottest summer on record.

Visiting the Bejis area of Castellón, where wildfires had destroyed approximately 19,000 hectares of land this week Sanchez said it was the “hottest summer ever since Spain started recording reliable data in 1961."

Sanchez also warned that the temperatures experienced this summer were just the beginning and that future summers were likely to be even hotter.

Standing in front of charred trees, Sanchez said that he regretted the "psychological blow" suffered by those who had lost their belongings to the fires, as well as the environmental damage caused.

Unfortunately, science is telling us that the next summers are going to be even hotter which means that we are facing a climate emergency,” he said.

The country has suffered unprecedented heat waves in recent weeks with temperatures soaring to around 45c in places leading to drought conditions.

Forest fires have also been ravaging the country with Sanchez claiming that so far in 2022, around 223,000 hectares of land had been destroyed, more than four times last year’s figure of 51,000.

Over 270,000 people were also forced from their homes due to more than 400 wildfires that have been sweeping the country.

The Prime Minister also confirmed that the affected regions would be declared disaster zones meaning that recovery funds would be fast-tracked.

It is the country's fourth driest year since 1961 with 26% less rainfall than usual, meaning that many communities have had to impose water restrictions.

Water levels have been so low, that the megalithic structure, the Dolmen of Guadalperal, dubbed the 'Stonehenge' of Spain, was exposed for only the fourth time in history at a reservoir in Extremadura.

Image Credit: Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

Source

https://www.laprensalatina.com/spain-pm-warns-of-climate-emergency-after-hottest-summer-on-record/
https://www.news24.com/fin24/climate_future/news/spain-to-declare-fire-hit-regions-disaster-zones-20220822
https://murciatoday.com/spain_sizzles_in_hottest_summer_for_over_a_century_1816994-a.html