Spain: More than 5,000 deaths due to heat in the last three months

Madrid, Aug 31 (KUNA) -- The Spanish Ministry of Health announced on Monday that 5,109 people died due to heat-related causes during the past three months (June, July, and August), marking the highest toll since data recording began in 2015. In a statement, the ministry’s daily mortality monitoring system (MOMO) reported that 62 percent of the deaths were among elderly individuals aged 85 and older, followed by women, who accounted for 60 percent of the total fatalities. The statement noted that 937 people died in June from heat-related causes, with deaths rising in July, which broke national temperature records since the beginning of historical records, reaching 2,025 heat-related deaths. It added that August, which recorded the second-highest temperatures since records began, saw 2,147 heat-related deaths. The summer 2026 death toll so far has surpassed those of summers 2022, 2023, and 2025, which recorded 4,789, 3,035, and 3,651 heat-related deaths, respectively (1,977 deaths were recorded in summer 2024). However, it remains significantly lower than the summer of 2003, when heat-related deaths were estimated at around 13,000. (End) H.N.D./F.S.