Thermometers on mainland Spain have never climbed above 30 degrees during the Christmas month. But now it's close.

On Tuesday, a record-breaking 29.9 degrees was measured in Málaga, the highest temperature recorded in December on the mainland.

Record high temperatures were measured on the Spanish mainland on Tuesday. A total of seven weather stations in the municipalities of Málaga and Murcia showed higher temperatures than the previous December record of 29.4 degrees measured in 2010 in Granada, writes El País.

The highest temperature was recorded by a weather station in Málaga, at 29.9 degrees.

The unusual December heat has come after several days of warm air currents over the Iberian Peninsula, when unusually high temperatures have been noted in several places.

This is the third time this year that a new heat record has been set for a single month in Spain. Previously, it occurred in April and October, both times in the municipality of Córdoba.

The heat wave also extends to Valencia, which was bathed in sunshine and 27 degrees on Tuesday. In the mountains of Sierra Nevada, there is no heat, but neither are there the freezing temperatures that normally prevail and therefore no snow on the ski slopes.

On Tuesday evening, the national weather agency Aemet on X that 29.4 degrees was measured at Malaga airport, which is a full 4.9 degrees more than the previous record at that station. Aemet points out that heat waves like this would have been ”much less likely without the climate changes that have been observed globally”.

According to Aemet, heat waves in the country have tripled in the last ten years, and the period of summer weather has become ten days longer per decade since the 1980s.

Source: TT-DI.SE