--- title: Spain and Portugal Experience Hottest April Ever Recorded description: The extreme heat in the western Mediterranean region would have been almost impossible without climate change. canonical: https://time.com/6277906/spain-portugal-hottest-april-on-record/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-05-08T13:41:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T15:50:44.684Z article:section: Climate og:title: Spain and Portugal Experience Hottest April Ever Recorded og:description: The extreme heat in the western Mediterranean region would have been almost impossible without climate change. og:url: https://time.com/6277906/spain-portugal-hottest-april-on-record/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e03893ebddb3e9b/698a3cafcabb1d5d9ee51612/spain-extreme-heat-record-april-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TOPSHOT-SPAIN-CLIMATE-WEATHER-WARMING og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Spain and Portugal Experience Hottest April Ever Recorded twitter:description: The extreme heat in the western Mediterranean region would have been almost impossible without climate change. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e03893ebddb3e9b/698a3cafcabb1d5d9ee51612/spain-extreme-heat-record-april-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Spain and Portugal Experience Hottest April Ever Recorded ## Video: Setting Boundaries: Johan Rockström's Quest for a Healthy Planet [Watch (HLS stream): Setting Boundaries: Johan Rockström's Quest for a Healthy Planet](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ZJVfj7hC.m3u8) (6:28)  _Published 2023-04-20. In the climate science world, Johan Rockström is known as a bit of a... rockstar. He's on the 2023 TIME100 list. He has a viral TED Talk. He stars in a Netflix documentary. And when people talk about the practical steps needed to slow climate change, they talk about his work._ by [Laura Millan / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Laura Millan / Bloomberg May 8, 2023 1:41 PM CUT  A couple ride a Vespa motorcycle past a street thermometer reading 44 degrees Celsius in Seville on April 26, 2023 as Spain is bracing for an early heat wave. A couple ride a Vespa motorcycle past a street thermometer reading 44 degrees Celsius in Seville on April 26, 2023 as Spain is bracing for an early heat wave.CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP—Getty Images by [Laura Millan / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Laura Millan / Bloomberg May 8, 2023 1:41 PM CUT Spain and Portugal recorded their hottest April on record as a mass of hot air brought [temperatures](https://time.com/6202849/extreme-heat-health-risks/ "undefined") above 30C and close to 40C in some areas at the end of the month. Last month was the fourth-hottest month of April on record globally for the 1991 to 2020 period, according to a report by the European Union’s Earth observation agency Copernicus. Parts of Africa, the area around the Caspian Sea, Southeast Asia, Japan and northern North America were all much warmer than average. [Extreme heat](https://time.com/6198720/heatwave-health-death-toll/ "undefined") in the western Mediterranean region would have been almost impossible without [climate change](https://time.com/tag/climate-change/ "undefined"), a different scientific report concluded last week. Greenhouse gases emitted by humans have warmed the planet by about 1.2C since pre-industrial times, and every year since 2015 has been among the warmest on record. --- ### More from TIME --- Average temperatures in the Iberian Peninsula in April were 3C above the average between 1991 and 2020, according to a separate statement on Monday by Spanish meteorological agency Aemet. Maximum temperatures during the month were 4.7C above average, with 38.8C recorded at the airport of the southern city of Córdoba on April 27. The heat wave happened amid a widespread drought that’s hitting the region for the second consecutive year. April was [Spain](https://time.com/6200153/first-named-heat-wave-zoe-seville/ "undefined")’s driest month since records started in 1961, according to Aemet. The month was also drier than average south of the Alps, in regions of Mediterranean France, north-western Scandinavia, the Baltic countries and much of western Russia. This year, average temperatures are expected to remain warm amid a growing likelihood that an El Niño event will emerge toward the second part of the year. This phenomenon occurs when the equatorial Pacific warms and reacts with the atmosphere, disrupting weather patterns across the planet. During April, “above-average temperatures were observed over the equatorial eastern Pacific, which is an early sign for a potential transition to El Niño conditions often leading to warmer global temperatures,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement. In contrast, Alaska, Mongolia, the Arabian Peninsula, India and Australia were colder than average in April. Meanwhile, the south-eastern US, parts of east Asia, north-western Australia and Tanzania were wetter than average. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6277906/spain-portugal-hottest-april-on-record/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6277906/spain-portugal-hottest-april-on-record/"},"headline":"Spain and Portugal Experience Hottest April Ever Recorded","datePublished":"2023-05-08T13:41:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T15:50:44.684Z","description":"The extreme heat in the western Mediterranean region would have been almost impossible without climate change.","url":"https://time.com/6277906/spain-portugal-hottest-april-on-record/","keywords":["extreme weather","climate change","wire","healthscienceclimate","bloomberg wire"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e03893ebddb3e9b/698a3cafcabb1d5d9ee51612/spain-extreme-heat-record-april-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Millan / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e03893ebddb3e9b/698a3cafcabb1d5d9ee51612/spain-extreme-heat-record-april-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TOPSHOT-SPAIN-CLIMATE-WEATHER-WARMING","caption":"A couple ride a Vespa motorcycle past a street thermometer reading 44 degrees Celsius in Seville on April 26, 2023 as Spain is bracing for an early heat wave.","creditText":"CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/extreme-weather/","name":"extreme weather"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6277906/spain-portugal-hottest-april-on-record/","name":"Spain and Portugal Experience Hottest April Ever Recorded"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Setting Boundaries: Johan Rockström's Quest for a Healthy Planet","description":"In the climate science world, Johan Rockström is known as a bit of a... rockstar. 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