Oviedo Heat Wave

LETTER FROM OVIEDO

Mild Asturias Faces a Hotter Spain

An Oviedo pharmacy reads 41 degrees Celsius (104℉)

If you've heard a rumor that Spain, including my adopted city Oviedo, is suffering a perishing heat wave, the rumors are true. The Oviedo heat wave is inside and outside the stone walls, on the baking pavement, and the asphalt. I don’t know about anyone else, but I walk a lot slower and hug the shady side of the street wearing a broad-brimmed sun-hat. (Incidentally, sun-hats aren’t that ubiquitous here except perhaps at the beach.) Is this city, built for rain, clouds, and green hills suddenly having to think more like Córdoba?

Oviedo heat wave: Spain’s short-term forecast

Oviedo reached around 36°C yesterday, Wednesday, before cooling into a more typical Asturian range today, with clouds, showers, and temperatures closer to the low-to-mid 20s. That is the good news.

Elsewhere in Spain, the heat is more severe. Córdoba is forecast to climb toward 40–43°C in the coming days, Madrid remains near 38°C, Logroño is around 41°C, Jaén is in the high 30s to low 40s, and Bilbao has faced a striking red heat warning with forecast temperatures around 43°C. For a quick frame of reference, 35 degrees centigrade/Celsius is 95℉; 40℃ is 104℉.

Why this feels unusual in Asturias

Asturias has historically been Spain’s cooler, greener, wetter north. Summers here have been mild compared with central and southern Spain. AEMET’s regional climate data show Asturias’ average maximum temperature is about 22.8°C in July and 23.5°C in August.

That background matters. A 33°C day in Oviedo lands differently than a 33°C day in Seville. Oviedo was not built, psychologically or architecturally, around intense summer heat.

One hot spell alone does not prove a permanent shift. But recent data point in the wrong direction. AEMET reported that 2025 was Spain’s third-warmest year since records began in 1961, with Asturias among the regions classified as extremely warm. Spain’s summer 2025 was also the hottest in the national series.

The ovetense response: stoic, but not silent

Ovetenses (citizens of Oviedo) seem to handle the heat with a combination of stoicism, resignation, and audible complaint. There is no great theatrical collapse in the streets. People keep walking. Cafés keep serving hot coffee (not much of an iced coffee culture here in the American sense), errands continue and life doesn’t stop.

But listen for five minutes and the complaints are there. Qué calor! Esto no es normal. No se puede dormir. It isn’t panic, but it is a legitimate grumble and the sound of a northern city discovering that its old assumptions may no longer be reliable.

The air-conditioning challenge

Here is the uncomfortable reality: outside of businesses, air conditioning is far from guaranteed. Shops, supermarkets, clinics, and malls may offer relief, but apartments and homes often do not.

That makes sense historically. In a place where summer highs were often in the low-to-mid 20s Celsius, air conditioning was not a basic architectural expectation. A listing-based Idealista study estimated that only 41% of Spain’s housing stock had air conditioning in 2024, and northern cities have traditionally needed it less than Madrid, Seville, or Murcia.

But this is where climate change stops being abstract. A home without air conditioning in a 22°C (about 72℉) summer may be fine, but one without AC in a 33–39°C summer is another animal altogether.

What comes next

Immediately, Asturias may get some relief. The forecast shows the Oviedo heat wave temperatures dropping after the peak, with clouds, showers, and more recognizable Asturian weather returning for several days. But Spain as a whole isn’t remotely finished with heat by any stretch. Southern and inland cities are expected to remain exposed to repeated high-temperature episodes and wildfires.

Further out, the warnings are more serious. Europe is warming more than twice as fast as the global average, according to Copernicus, and the IPCC projects increased wildfire risk across Europe, especially as heat and drought conditions intensify.

For Asturias, the future may not mean becoming Andalusia. Geography still matters. The sea still matters. The mountains still matter. But it may mean more days when the old green-Spain comfort fails. More hot nights. More demand for fans and portable air conditioners. More pressure on older buildings. More concern for older residents. More fire risk in dry periods. More strain on a region whose beauty depends on water, shade, and the assumption that summer will not turn hostile.

Oviedo is still Oviedo even if the hills are patchy green with some brown, but it may be warning us of things to come.