The heatwave may officially be over in the Balearics, but it is going to remain extremely hot for the best part of this week.
Yesterday highs reached 38ºC in Pollensa and other areas in the centre of the island and the region will remain on heat alert for the next two days with temperatures not expected to start falling much until at least Thursday.
Forest firefighters are also remaining of full alert and the flying of private drones has been banned in the Balearics for the time being in the event of them hampering firefighting planes and helicopters.
The four-day heatwave across western Europe that killed seven people, two here in mainland Spain, began to ease slightly on Sunday, as temperature alerts were cut back and wildfires slowly brought under control.
Most of the fires that had broken out Spain in recent days were stabilised, but firefighters were still struggling yesterday to control a blaze in the central provinces of Toledo and Madrid that had burned more than 20 sq km (8 sq miles) since Friday.
In the northeastern town of La Almunia de Dona Godina, the temperature hit a scorching 42.4 Celsius (108.3 Fahrenheit). But five of Spain’s 50 provinces were downgraded from “extreme” weather risk, leaving just two at the highest level, with 31 on weather alert.
The World Meteorological Organization said this week that the European heatwave was “absolutely consistent” with extremes linked to the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.