Spain's Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia registered Monday its hottest January temperature of 26.9 degrees Celsius in records going back more than 150 years, the national weather agency said.The measurement broke the previous mark of 26.6 Celsius (79.9 Fahrenheit) recorded on January 22, 2018 in a data set starting in 1869, AEMET posted on X.
A west wind stoked exceptionally hot temperatures on the coast with some areas experiencing their warmest night on record from Sunday to Monday, the eastern Valencia region's weather association Avamet said.
Spain is on the front line of the climate crisis as longer, harsher and more frequent heatwaves bake the European country.
Oceans have absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat produced by human activity since the dawn of the industrial age, according to scientists.
A warmer Mediterranean Sea fuelled the ferocious October storm that triggered Spain's deadliest floods in decades, with the Valencia region suffering almost all of the 232 victims.
