Two new weather records broken on the Costa del Sol in June, according to Aemet

The average maximum temperature during the day in June was 31.7C, which Aemet director Jesús Riesco has said is a record at the Costa del Sol airport. The previous record was set in 2003, at 30.4C. He also pointed out that the six highest figures have all been during the 21st century. “You can see the effect of climate change, right there,” he said.

The overall average temperature was also the highest ever at 26.1C, beating 2012 (25.5C) and 2017 (25.3C).

Riesco said the reason was the prevalence of a mass of very hot air arriving from north Africa, which is what triggered the heatwave in nearly the whole of Spain in the middle of the month (although in Malaga the temperatures were not especially high), and there were also days of terral winds. “It isn’t that we have had any days with really exaggerated temperatures, but every day they have been above the average,” he explained.

The hottest day was 8 June, with a high of 37.8C, when the normal maximum would be below 35C.

Aemet has predicted that the wind will be from the east nearly all this week, with a high of around 29C and a low of 20C on the Costa del Sol. The forecast for next weekend though, is for much higher temperatures inland (Antequera, Guadalhorce Valley) and especially in the Guadalquivir river basin, where it will reach 40C.