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June 2026 was the deadliest June for heat in Spain since daily mortality monitoring began. The MoMo system run by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III estimated just over 1,000 deaths attributable to heat for the month (reported figures ranged from roughly 900 to 1,028 as estimates were updated in early July), most of them people over 65. That number is not a reason to fear the summer. It is a reason to treat heat the way long-term residents and the Spanish health system treat it: as a season with a protocol, not as weather. The protocol exists, it is public, and most of it was built for exactly the readership of this guide. It is simply published in Spanish.
Last verified: 16 July 2026.
What the colours actually mean in Málaga province
AEMET, the state meteorological agency, issues avisos (warnings) under its Meteoalerta plan: yellow, orange, red. The part most people miss is that the temperature thresholds are set zone by zone, calibrated to what each zone is built for. Málaga province has four warning zones, and the official thresholds for maximum temperature are:
- Sol y Guadalhorce (the Costa del Sol strip, the Guadalhorce valley, and Málaga city): yellow at 36, orange at 39, red at 42.
- Axarquía (Nerja, Torrox, Vélez-Málaga and inland): yellow at 36, orange at 39, red at 42.
- Antequera: yellow at 38, orange at 40, red at 44.
- Ronda: yellow at 38, orange at 40, red at 44.
So an orange aviso on the coast means a forecast of 39 or above, which here usually means terral, the hot, dry wind that pours down from the interior and can add ten degrees in an afternoon. The reading worth internalizing: yellow is common and means adjust your day; orange is the coast’s serious signal; red at 42 on this coast is rare and means the day has no safe outdoor hours for older bodies. Warnings are forecasts by zone, issued up to 72 hours ahead, typically covering the 13:00 to 21:00 window on heat days.
Where to check, in under a minute
The canonical source is AEMET’s warnings page: aemet.es, then El Tiempo, Predicción, Avisos, which shows the colour map for the next 72 hours. The official AEMET app (free, iOS and Android) shows the same warnings by municipality and can notify you. AEMET Andalucía also posts every aviso on X at @AEMET_Andalucia. One check each summer morning, the same way locals glance at it, is enough; the pattern to watch is not one hot day but a block of consecutive orange days, because heat deaths accumulate across episodes, not afternoons.
The health layer: the Junta’s heat plan
Separately from AEMET’s weather warnings, Andalucía runs a health protocol, the Protocolo andaluz de coordinación frente a los efectos de las temperaturas excesivas sobre la salud, active every year from mid-May to 30 September (in 2026, from 15 May). It assigns each province a daily risk level: 0 (green, no risk), 1 (yellow, low), 2 (orange, medium), 3 (red, high). When levels rise, the machinery moves: health centres and the Salud Responde service begin proactive telephone follow-up of registered vulnerable patients. In summer 2025 the Servicio Andaluz de Salud included just over 17,000 vulnerable patients for follow-up, and Salud Responde made more than 90,000 calls, backed by nursing calls and home visits where needed.
The part that matters for this readership: inclusion runs through the health system, not through a public sign-up form. Primary care teams identify patients from their records, which works less well for foreign residents who visit their centro de salud rarely or use private cover. If you are over 65 and live alone, or care for someone who does, or manage a cardiovascular, respiratory or kidney condition, raise it with the family doctor and ask about the summer follow-up programme for vulnerable patients. Salud Responde (955 545 060, free, 24 hours, also an app) is the general health information line and the practical first call for heat-plan questions.
Climate shelters exist where town halls have built them. Málaga city runs the most developed network on the coast: 19 air-conditioned indoor spaces (libraries, museums, municipal centres) plus 74 shaded outdoor areas with benches and drinking water, mapped on the city’s website under zonas de confort climático. Most other Costa del Sol towns have no formal network yet; the working equivalents are the public library, the shopping centre, and any air-conditioned municipal building.
Torrid nights, the quiet killer
The days get the headlines; the nights do much of the harm. In AEMET’s classification a noche tropical (tropical night) is one where the minimum never drops below 20 degrees; when the minimum holds at or above 25, meteorologists call it a noche tórrida (torrid night). The Mediterranean coast now records tropical nights by the dozen each summer, and torrid nights are no longer unusual on this strip in July and August.
The mechanism is recovery. The body sheds the heat stress of the day at night; when the bedroom never cools, that recovery does not happen, and the strain carries into the next hot day. Strung across a multi-day episode, that is how heat aggravates cardiovascular and respiratory conditions in older people, which is where the excess mortality in the MoMo figures concentrates. The practical response is unglamorous: sleep in the coolest room of the house even if it is not the bedroom, ventilate hard in the early morning and close up by mid-morning, use the air conditioning at night during warning episodes without economizing on it, and drink water before bed. A fan alone stops helping when room temperature approaches body temperature.
When heat becomes a 112 call
Heat exhaustion (heavy sweating, weakness, dizziness, headache, cramps) is managed with shade, water, rest and cooling, and a call to Salud Responde or a visit to the health centre if it does not settle. Golpe de calor (heatstroke) is different, and it is an emergency. The signs, per the Ministry of Health’s guidance: hot, red and often dry skin; body temperature above 40; rapid, strong pulse; intense headache; confusion, strange behaviour or loss of consciousness. If you see that picture, call 112 immediately (the operators answer in English), move the person somewhere cool, and bring their temperature down with cool wet cloths or water while you wait. Do not give an unconscious or confused person anything to drink. In an older person, confusion on a hot afternoon is heatstroke until proven otherwise.
The July 2026 episode
For the record of this summer, as of 16 July: AEMET declared the summer’s second heat wave from 4 to 7 July, with a special warning and temperatures to 42 in the south. Málaga province then ran a string of consecutive yellow warnings from 13 July, with terral days pushing Álora to 41.3 degrees on 16 July, and on 15 July AEMET warned of a possible further heat wave bringing 42 to 44 degrees to Andalusian valleys, potentially lasting until around 22 July. June 2026 was Spain’s second-warmest June on record, behind only 2025. None of this changes the protocol above; it is the reason to have it running.
The five-minute version
- Coastal Málaga’s warning thresholds: yellow 36, orange 39, red 42. Orange is the coast’s serious signal and usually means terral.
- Check aemet.es or the AEMET app each summer morning. Watch for blocks of consecutive warning days, not single hot afternoons.
- The Junta’s heat plan runs 15 May to 30 September, with proactive check-in calls for vulnerable patients. Enrolment runs through the family doctor; ask at the centro de salud. Salud Responde: 955 545 060.
- Nights above 25 degrees block recovery. Coolest room, early-morning ventilation, air conditioning without guilt during episodes.
- Hot dry skin, confusion, or collapse in the heat is a 112 call, in English, immediately. Cool the person while you wait; nothing to drink if they are not fully conscious.
Related guides
- Summer on the Costa del Sol: The Emergency Layer, on One Page
- Jellyfish on the Costa del Sol: Flags, the InfoMedusa Check, and First Aid That Works
- ES-Alert: Set Up Your Phone for Spain’s Emergency Alerts in 60 Seconds
- Wildfire Emergencies in Andalucía: The Protocol in English
- Emergency Services in Spain: An Expat’s Guide
General information, current as of 16 July 2026. Primary sources: AEMET Plan Meteoalerta warning thresholds (annex 1), the Junta de Andalucía’s 2026 excessive-temperatures health protocol and Servicio Andaluz de Salud announcements, the Ministry of Health’s national heat plan and heatstroke guidance, Instituto de Salud Carlos III MoMo mortality estimates as reported in early July 2026, and Málaga city council’s climate comfort zone programme. Health information here is general; in an emergency call 112, and for personal medical advice speak to a doctor.
