At 9am yesterday morning, temperatures had already reached 32C in Palma and by 5pm, the maximum temperature in Majorca was 39C and 38.9C at Son Sant Joan Airport and the university respectively. In Soller, a weather station not part of the Aemet network registered 40.2C; this therefore wasn't an "official" temperature. Across the rest of the island, highs settled at around 37C. Aemet explains that it is too early to declare a heatwave as there need to be three consecutive days when the temperature is 36C or more. The met agency adds that there have been previous instances of temperatures of 40C or above in June and that they are relatively recent. In 2012, there was a high of 41.2C in Muro; in 2001, the airport registered 41.4C.
The emergency services are warning that heat like this early in the season can be especially hazardous to public health since people have not yet become accustomed to it.
In Palma it wasn't just the people who suffered, so do did the carriage horses. Seven drivers were penalised by the police for working their animals between midday and 5pm, which is prohibited when the island is registering the type of temperatures it was yesterday.
At 2.30pm, the alarm was raised after a bush fire broke out at Secar de la Real, near the monastery next to Son Espases Hospital. Firefighters from the Palma brigade, with aerial support from a forestry commission helicopter and two firefighting planes, brought the blaze under control by 5pm. Seven hectares were affected.
As a result, the Ibanat nature agency has banned all fires until this current heat alert is stood down.