Malaga recorded twice as many days with temperatures above 40 degrees in July

This is highlighted in a study carried out by José Luis Escudero, a weather presenter and editor of the ‘Storms and Lightning’ section at SUR.es, the findings of which have even been validated by Rubén del Campo, the national spokesperson for the state meteorological agency (Aemet). The analysis covers the last 50 years of official data from the airport weather station, which is used as the capital’s reference point for statistical purposes. The aim was to determine how many times temperatures had reached or exceeded 40 °C in July. To answer this question, the researcher has divided the data into two periods: first, 1974–1999, and second, 2000–2026.

As for the first period, temperatures did not reach 40 °C in 18 years; this only happened in seven of those years. These summers were generally "cooler" than those of today. Even at the start of the 21st century, this trend continued, and the 40 ºC threshold was not reached between 2000 and 2002 either, when maximum temperatures ranged between 37 and 38.4.

By 2003, the situation began to change, and that July there was already a day with a maximum temperature of 40.5. 2004 brought some relief (37), but in 2005 (40.4) and 2006 (41.6) the high was reached again. In 2007, the high didn’t reach that level either (38.2), but it did in 2008 (40). Then came 2009, when, for the first time, there were two days above that level, and the maximum was 41.8.

Once again, this was not the case in 2010 (38.8) or 2011 (38.6), but it was in 2012 (40.2). 2013 was the mildest so far this century (the maximum was 35.3), and 2014 was also tolerable (37.2). In 2015 there was one day (41.2), followed by four consecutive years in which the figure was not reached, though on almost every occasion it came very close: 2016, at 39; 2017, which broke the trend (35.6); 2018, at 39.9; and 2019, at 39.1.

This brings us to the current decade, in which a clear increase in heatwaves can be observed. In fact, temperatures have reached 40 degrees in every July over the last seven years, and such a prolonged run had never occurred in the half-century covered by the study. Furthermore, the number of days with soaring temperatures is also on the rise, with some years seeing as many as four days of intense heat.

Thus, in 2020 there was one day with a reading of 40.3; but in 2021, three days were recorded, with a maximum of 42.6. In 2022, there was one day (40.7). And so we come to 2023, which was a historic year and broke all records: that July saw four such days, with a high of 44.2. Meanwhile, in 2024 there were two (40.8); in 2025, one (41); and finally, in 2026, there have been two, with a high of 41.7 degrees.

“So far this century, the number of years in which July has recorded at least one day with a temperature of 40 degrees or more has increased compared with the end of the previous century, rising from seven to 14 years. There are now more days reaching 40 degrees,” Escudero said.

“It’s clear how the temperature is rising,” explained Aemet spokesperson Rubén del Campo, warning that last July was the warmest on record in Spain, tied with July 2022.

Meanwhile, July 2026 in Malaga city is already the third warmest since official records began at the airport, with an average temperature of 28.2. It has only been surpassed by 2023, at 29.4, and by 2015, at 28.3. All three occurred in the 21st century, based on a statistical series dating back to 1943.