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Abnormal heat triggers climate alerts in Barcelona and brings a new El Niño episode closer
Barcelona experienced an unusual April. Abnormally high temperatures altered the city’s rhythm long before summer: full terraces, beaches bringing forward their season and hot days untypical of spring marked a month that is already among the warmest recorded in Catalonia and much of Spain.
The situation is part of an increasingly visible global trend. April 2026 was the third hottest April ever measured on the planet, with a global average temperature of 14.89 ºC. The figure is 1.43 ºC above pre-industrial levels and confirms that the planet continues to string together extreme records. In Spain, the heat was particularly intense and once again placed the country among the European areas most affected by thermal anomalies.
The Mediterranean Sea is also beginning to show worrying signs. The ocean's surface temperature reached record levels for this time of year, approaching 21 ºC globally. This is especially worrying ahead of summer, since warmer waters favour longer heatwaves, tropical nights and extreme weather events that are increasingly frequent in coastal cities such as Barcelona.
Meanwhile, polar ice continues to shrink. The Arctic recorded the second-lowest ice extent for a month of April and Antarctica remains well below its usual values. Floods, cyclones and droughts in different parts of the world add to this, reinforcing the sense that extreme phenomena are already part of global climate day-to-day life.
Attention is now focused on the possible arrival of a new El Niño episode during the second half of 2026. This phenomenon usually intensifies heat in the Mediterranean and alters rainfall, temperatures and water availability. In cities such as Barcelona, where heat and drought already shape urban life, its evolution concerns meteorologists as well as those responsible for public health and water management.