A Spanish lagoon has dried up completely for the second year in a row as the holiday hotspot swelters through its third heatwave this year.
The state weather agency AEMET warned of dry storms - meaning thunder and lightning without rainfall - in many parts of the country with temperatures expected to soar to 44C (111F) in places.
Spain is one of several southern European countries that have been grappling with record-breaking temperatures this summer, prompting authorities to warn of health risks, particularly for the elderly and those with medical conditions.
The largest permanent lagoon in southern Spain’s Donana national park has completely dried out for the second summer in a row due to a prolonged drought and the overexploitation of aquifers, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) said on Thursday.
“Since we began collecting data on the area half a century ago, this has never happened in two consecutive years, which shows the seriousness of the situation facing the Donana lagoon system and, with it, all the biodiversity that depends on it,” the CSIC said in a statement.
The Donana wetlands harbour many endemic and threatened species, such as freshwater eels and turtles.
The drying out of the lagoon comes as Spain grapples with the third heatwave of the summer, while emptying reservoirs have forced water restrictions in parts of the country.
In landlocked Madrid, the mercury hit 38C on Thursday with even higher temperatures recorded in the south of the country.
In the central city of Toledo, where the temperature was set to hit 41C, tourists took refuge from the heat in bars equipped with misting fans.
“We need to make the most of the tourist (season),” said Martin, a waiter at El Greco cafeteria. “With these fans at least we can make the terrace a bit more pleasant and fresh.”
At Casa Antonio, which sells traditional Spanish products, owner Alberto Solano was handing out frozen sangria to passing tourists.
“We found some shade and we found some sangria,” said Ryan Williams, 53, a basketball coach from Colorado visiting with his daughter Emily. “It’s very refreshing.”
The heatwaves recorded in Spain and wider Europe this summer have also worsened a prolonged drought, lowering reservoir levels as water evaporation and consumption increase and prompting authorities in Catalonia to impose restrictions.
As Spain suffocates under high temperatures, ice on its mountains is melting.
The Cryosphere, a scientific journal focused on frozen water and ground, published a peer-reviewed paper on Tuesday showing how the Aneto Glacier, the largest in the Pyrenees, is melting and could disappear altogether.
The paper shows the glacier lost about two-thirds of its surface area between 1981 and 2022 and has been reduced to just half a square km. The glacier’s mean ice thickness was reduced by about 30 meters in the same period.
The melting accelerated in 2021 and 2022, both particularly warm years in Spain
