Spain sets temperature records, U.K. sees hottest day of 2020

Associated Press

MADRID – As parts of Spain set record temperatures during a heatwave, people in Britain sweltered and flocked to beaches Friday on the country’s hottest day this year.

San Sebastian on Spain’s northern coast witnessed 107 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday – the hottest temperature there since records began in 1955, the national weather agency said.

The city of Palma, on Spain’s Mediterranean island of Mallorca, set a local record of 105 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday.

The Spanish weather agency, Aemet, said tropical nights – when temperatures do not fall below 68 degrees – were also frequent in many parts of Spain in July.

“Climate change is increasing the frequency of heatwaves,” it said, adding that the annual number of days in heatwave conditions has doubled since the 1980s.

To the north, U.K. residents sought shade as temperatures rose above 98.6 degrees. National weather agency the Met Office said a reading of 100 degrees was recorded at Heathrow Airport west of London. That made Friday the hottest day of 2020 and the third hottest on record.Previous bouts of hot weather have seen people pack beaches around the British coast – not always observing social distancing measures intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The city council in Brighton, on England’s south coast, appealed for visitors to stay away, saying it was “concerned about the number of people in the city.”

“Large numbers make it impossible to maintain physical distancing,” the council said.

Forecasters said the blast of heat would ease later in the day and there was a chance of thunderstorms across eastern England as cooler air moves in.