Extreme heat arrived before summer, causing a record 101 deaths in May. Health authorities warn that health risks rise with every degree above alert thresholds.
Unusually high temperatures recorded during the month of May have already led to a record number of heat-related deaths in Spain, even before the start of the meteorological summer.
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According to estimates from the daily mortality monitoring system (MoMo), last month saw 101 deaths attributed to high temperatures, the highest figure for May since monitoring began in 2015.
This is 3.6 times the average number of deaths linked to heat recorded in May over the past decade and underscores the growing health impact of episodes of extreme temperatures outside the traditionally hottest months of the year.
"The problem is no longer just that it is hotter; it is that the heat is arriving earlier and earlier, and our bodies have not yet acclimatised," said the health minister, Mónica García, as she presented the 2026 National Plan for Preventive Action on the Health Effects of Excessive Temperatures.
"There is a lack of physiological adaptation and no perception of the risk that entails."
The warning comes in a context of increasingly frequent extreme weather events.
According to calculations by the health ministry, the risk of mortality rises by between 9.1% and 10.7% for every degree by which temperatures exceed the threshold considered hazardous to health.
The cumulative data also reveal the high human cost of extreme heat in Spain.
Between 2015 and 2025, the MoMo system estimated 27,564 deaths attributable to high temperatures. The deadliest year was 2022, with 4,789 deaths, followed by 2025, with 3,832.
