Spain sees record sea temperatures in June as mercury continues to rise

A ‘refreshing’ dip in the Mediterranean Sea might be off the cards for beachgoers in Almería after water temperatures just off shore reached 24.3ºC over the past few days.

While this temperature is still around 10 degrees lower than the current air temperature, it is still warmer than most of the rest of Europe right now, and marks the highest recorded sea temperatures in Spain for more than a decade…

Buoys dotted along Spain’s Mediterranean, Cantabrian and Atlantic coastlines have been registering higher-than-normal temperatures all week as summer kicks into gear. In the north, off Cabo Silleiro in Galicia, a sea temperature of 19.9ºC recorded last week is the highest ever, and is some 1.25ºC higher than last June.

In Bilbao, the Bay of Biscay buoy registered 23.5ºC, while in Tarragona in the northeast of Spain, the Mediterranean temperature was an incredible 27ºC over the weekend.

Down on the Costa del Sol the sea temperature tends to be a little lower than further north thanks to the cooling effect of the brisker Atlantic Ocean waters gushing through the Straits of Gibraltar.

Marine experts monitoring the sea temperature increases do not believe they are any cause for alarm, noting that June through to September regularly sees temperatures in the waters around Spain reach between 23 – 27ºC.

And with the current hot temperatures and longer days, it is inevitable that records will be matched, or beaten.