A local resident fights a forest fire with a shovel during a wildfire in Tabara, north-west Spain, Tuesday, 19 July 2022. Spain’s national weather service said preliminary data indicates that 2022 will finish with average daily temperatures above 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time since records started in 1961. It says that the four hottest years on record for the southern European country have all come since 2015. Photo: Bernat Armangue / AP Photo
A local resident fights a forest fire with a shovel during a wildfire in Tabara, north-west Spain, Tuesday, 19 July 2022. Spain’s national weather service said preliminary data indicates that 2022 will finish with average daily temperatures above 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time since records started in 1961. It says that the four hottest years on record for the southern European country have all come since 2015. Photo: Bernat Armangue / AP Photo

MADRID, 21 December 2022 (AP) – Spain is about to conclude its hottest year on record, the nation’s weather service said Wednesday.

Spain’s national weather service said preliminary data indicates that 2022 will finish with average daily temperatures above 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time since records started in 1961.

The four hottest years on record for the southern European country have all come since 2015, it said.

The service adds that, even with recent rainfalls, Spain is also poised to record one of its driest years. Only 2005 and 2017 saw less rainfall at this point on the calendar.

Europe has suffered an exceptionally dry and hot year that has favored explosive wild fires, damaged crop yields, and led to water restrictions. European authorities and experts link the extreme weather to climate change.

Spain records hottest year ever in 2022