MADRID, Sept 16, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Spain sweltered through its hottest summer ever recorded this year, the national meteorological agency AEMET said Tuesday, the latest in a string of global temperature records.

The average temperature settled at 24.2C this summer, smashing the previous record set in 2022, and the highest figure since records began in 1961, AEMET spokesman Ruben del Campo told a news conference.

Nine of the ten hottest summers in Spain since records began in 1961 have occurred in the 21st century, he added.

"We really are on this trend toward much hotter summers," the spokesman said.

Spain endured a record 16-day heatwave in August which fuelled wildfires that killed four people, and which the Carlos III Health Institute estimates caused more than 1,100 deaths -- mostly people older than 65.

Since it began keeping records in 1975, AEMET has registered 77 heatwaves in Spain, with six going 4C or more above the average.

Five of those have been since 2019.

Scientists have warned persistently that human-driven climate change is resulting in more frequent and intense weather events worldwide.

Britain, Japan and South Korea also endured this year the hottest summers since each country began keeping records, according to their weather agencies.