This year’s summer was the third warmest since 1931, with a temperature of 1.21°C above the average, but it was normal in terms of precipitation, according to the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
In the climatological bulletin for the summer of 2026 in mainland Portugal, released today, IPMA explains that the average air temperature was 23.17 degrees Celsius (°C), 1.21°C above normal (1991-2020), which made it the third warmest, only behind the summers of 2025 and 2005.
The summer, notes IPMA in the document, was marked by two heat waves, between June 9 and June 24 and between June 29 and July 11, the latter being the most significant, covering 77% of the stations analyzed.
Twenty-three new extremes of the highest air temperature values were recorded.
Over the three summer months, average monthly temperatures were, in general, above normal, with the largest deviations in June. July 4 was the hottest day of the summer on the mainland, and the highest maximum temperature was recorded in Mora, at 44.3°C on July 3.
Regarding precipitation, the summer was marked by an episode of heavy rain at the end of August. In the three months there was a total accumulation of 43.3 millimeters, which represents 97% of the normal value.
But while in June and July rainfall was below average, August made the summer of 2026 a normal summer, since the precipitation occurring in August was 2.6 times above what is normal to rain in August (260%). Seventeen new daily precipitation extremes were recorded.
Due to this rain, by the end of summer drought values had decreased and were distributed as follows: 29.5% in the normal class, 54.1% in the light drought class, 9.2% in the moderate drought class and 7.2% in the severe drought class.
In Europe, in several regions, such as France and the United Kingdom, the summer was marked by very high temperatures, more than 4°C above normal.
