Extreme heat risks to pregnancy driven by climate change: Spain

2020 to 2024

We counted the number of days with temperatures warmer than 95% of temperatures observed at a given location (also referred to as temperatures above the 95th percentile) — a threshold which research1 shows can bring increased risk of preterm birth. We define these extremely hot days as “pregnancy heat-risk days.”

  • During the past five years, Spain experienced an average of 22 additional pregnancy heat-risk days each year.

  • Climate change accounted for about 69% of the pregnancy heat-risk days experienced in Spain on average each year during 2020 to 2024 (22 of 32 days).

  • The province of Illes Balears experienced the most additional pregnancy heat-risk days each year (28) on average during the past five years (of all provinces in Spain).

  • Barcelona experienced the most additional pregnancy heat-risk days each year (28) in Spain on average during the past five years.

  • In Madrid, climate change accounted for 81% of the average annual pregnancy heat-risk days (25 out of 31 days) during the past five years.

Explore data for provinces and cities across Spain in the interactive maps below.


Provinces with the most pregnancy heat-risk days added by climate change




Cities with the most pregnancy heat-risk days added by climate change



1We chose this percentile based on peer-reviewed research from Kuehn et al. (2017), Wang et al. (2013), Wang et al. (2024), and McElroy et al. (2022).