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The heat is not letting up, and the human cost is becoming impossible to ignore. Andalucía has recorded 280 deaths attributable to high temperatures since the start of the summer season on May 15, more than double the 118 recorded in the same period last year, according to the MoMo daily mortality monitoring system of the Carlos III Health Institute.

 

A third heatwave is now sweeping the region, expected to last until Friday. Temperatures could reach 45 degrees Celsius today in the Guadalhorce Valley in Málaga province, with the middle and upper Guadalquivir valley, areas of Córdoba and Jaén, inland Granada and Almería also facing particularly severe conditions.

 

Health Minister Antonio Sanz has already called for "responsibility and prudence," warning that more than 1,300 emergency callouts for heat-related illness have been recorded across the region since the current heatwave began, and describing the situation as one of "logical concern." 

 

Of the 280 heat-related deaths recorded in Andalucía this summer, six were direct deaths from heatstroke, five of them in Seville. The rest reflect the broader and less visible toll: heat that triggers or aggravates existing cardiovascular, respiratory or renal conditions, where the death certificate records the illness rather than the temperature as the cause. The MoMo system identifies these excess deaths by comparing observed mortality against expected mortality during periods of extreme heat.

 

By province, Seville has been by far the worst affected, with 113 heat-related deaths. Málaga follows with 54, Almería with 51, Huelva with 25, Jaén with 19 and Córdoba with 17. Women are disproportionately affected, accounting for 170 of the 280 deaths compared to 110 men.

 

Nationally, Andalucía ranks third for heat-related deaths this summer, behind Catalonia with 468 and the Basque Country with 315. The Valencian Community has recorded 245 and Madrid 208. At the other end of the scale, Murcia has recorded 24 and the Canary Islands just 7. The Balearic Islands are the only region where no heat-related deaths have been attributed so far this summer.

 

The wider European picture is equally sobering. Successive heatwaves across Western Europe in June resulted in 10,000 more deaths than expected across the continent, 9,000 of them elderly people.

 

It is worth understanding why the risk thresholds vary so much across Spain. The Ministry of Health operates 182 different climate zones, each with its own trigger temperature, the point at which mortality starts to rise significantly. In Seville's countryside and Córdoba, the threshold is 41.5 degrees Celsius, reflecting populations long acclimatised to extreme heat. On the Asturian or Basque coast, the same risk kicks in at just 25.7 degrees.

 

Heat is, statistically, the weather event that causes more deaths in Spain than fires or floods. With a third heatwave under way, that fact is worth keeping in mind.

 

 

 

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