The year’s first heatwave arrived a month earlier than in 2022, bringing exceptionally high temperatures in some regions. Spain is already battling a long drought that has pushed olive oil prices to record levels.

Exceptionally hot air moving northward from Africa will bring exceptionally high temperatures to the Iberian Peninsula from Tuesday to Friday, increasing the risk of wildfires, the Spanish meteorological agency Aemet said. It comes after the country recorded its second-warmest and second-driest March this century.

The heatwave is excepted to bring summer-like temperatures, with the mercury set to surpass 40C in the Andalusia region for the first time this year. It arrived almost a month earlier than in 2022, which at the time was also a historically early date. It follows an unusually hot and dry winter that hit most parts of Western Europe, forcing popular ski resorts to close early.

The exceptional drought has led to a surge of olive oil prices of about 60% since last June, reaching about €5.4 (US$5.97) per kilogram. Last year’s record-breaking European heatwaves – which the European Drought Observatory described as the worst in at least 500 years – had already compromised olive crops across the continent. Spain, Europe’s largest producer, was among the hardest-hit countries and saw annual supplies drop by half to about 780,000 tonnes in the past 12 months.

The impacts of the olive crisis in Spain could have repercussions globally since the nation produces on average about 44% of the world’s supply of olive oil each year, twice as much as Italy and four times as much as Greece.

In an address to the parliament last week, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned lawmakers that the acute drought had become one of its leading long-term concerns.

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