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Spain Records its Third Hottest Summer Since Records Began as Drought Drags on

A local resident fights a forest fire with a shovel during a wildfire in Tabara, northwest Spain, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. (AP)
A local resident fights a forest fire with a shovel during a wildfire in Tabara, northwest Spain, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. (AP)
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Spain Records its Third Hottest Summer Since Records Began as Drought Drags on

A local resident fights a forest fire with a shovel during a wildfire in Tabara, northwest Spain, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. (AP)
A local resident fights a forest fire with a shovel during a wildfire in Tabara, northwest Spain, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. (AP)

Spain this year recorded its third hottest summer since official records began 62 years ago, authorities said Thursday, with temperatures peaking at 46.8 C (116 F) as the country's severe drought dragged on.

The average summer temperature was 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.34 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal, the Spanish weather agency AEMET said.

The World Meteorological Organization said last week that last month wasn't only the world’s hottest August scientists ever recorded by far. It was also the second hottest month measured after July 2023.

Since 1961, mainland Spain’s average temperature has risen 1.6 degrees C (2.88 degrees F), according to AEMET.

Spain’s two hottest summers were in 2022 and 2003.

This year's January-August period in Spain equaled the same periods in 2022 and 2020 as the country’s hottest ever recorded over those months, AEMET said.

At the same time, this summer was the rainiest since the turn of the century, AEMET said, though most of Spain is still in the grip of an extended drought. Northeast Spain is enduring its most extreme drought since records began.

Also, between January and August Spain’s coastal waters heated up more than ever previously recorded, according to AEMET.

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Europe's Oldest Lake Settlement Uncovered in Albania

A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
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Europe's Oldest Lake Settlement Uncovered in Albania

A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci

Archaeologists working on the shores of Ohrid Lake in Albania are convinced they have uncovered the oldest human settlement built on a European lake, finding evidence of an organized hunting and farming community living up to 8,000 years ago. The team, from Switzerland and Albania, spends hours each day about three meters (9.8 feet) underwater, painstakingly retrieving wooden stilts that supported houses.

The are also collecting bones of domesticated and wild animals, copper objects and ceramics, featuring detailed carvings.

Albert Hafner, from the University of Bern, said similar settlements have been found in Alpine and Mediterranean regions, but the settlements in the village of Lin are half a millennium older, dating back between 6,000 and 8,000 years.

"Because it is under water, the organic material is well-preserved and this allows us to find out what these people have been eating, what they have been planting," Hafner said.

Multiple studies show that Lake Ohrid, shared by North Macedonia and Albania, is the oldest lake in Europe, at over one million years.

The age of the findings is determined through radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology, which measures annual growth rings in trees. More than one thousand wood samples have been collected from the site, which may have hosted several hundred people.

It is believed to cover around six hectares, but so far, only about 1% has been excavated after six years of work.

Hafner said findings show that people who lived on the lake helped to spread agriculture and livestock to other parts of Europe.

"They were still doing hunting and collecting things but the stable income for the nutrition was coming from the agriculture," he said.

Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi said it could take decades to fully explore the area.

"(By) the way they had lived, eaten, hunted, fished and by the way the architecture was used to build their settlement we can say they were very smart for that time," Anastasi said.