On July 13, 2017, the Córdoba airport observatory recorded 46.9 °C, the highest maximum measured up to then at a main Aemet station. The figure was repeated in August 2021 and remains the station's record.
On Thursday, July 13, 2017, the thermometer at Córdoba airport reached 46.9 degrees. It was the highest temperature recorded up to that day at a main station of the Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (Aemet) in Spain, as Europa Press reported at the time with data from the agency itself.
The climate report for July 2017 for Andalucía, Ceuta and Melilla records it as follows: on the 12th and 13th the maximums were abnormally high for the time of year, exceeded 44 degrees in many areas and records were broken at many points in the region. Aemet highlighted the 46.9 degrees in Córdoba as a new maximum in its historical series and the 45.7 in Granada, also a record.
The city's previous record was 46.6 degrees, from July 23, 1995. That same July 13, an automatic station in Montoro measured 47.3 degrees, a figure that remained pending verification at the time. Meanwhile, the city of Málaga stayed at 28 degrees.
August 2021: the tie
Four years later, the August 2021 heatwave took Córdoba back to the top. On August 14 the airport again recorded 46.9 degrees and matched its own mark. That day, the Montoro-Vega Armijo station recorded 47.4 degrees, which was reported as a new maximum for Spain.
That was not the last word. The following day, August 15, the Alcantarilla station, at the Murcia air base, reached 47.0 degrees, which Aemet considers the absolute record of its network of main stations. Córdoba thus lost first place among the large observatories, although it kept its own mark.
La Rambla, the figure that took a year
The province held another surprise. In July 2022 Aemet spokesperson Cayetano Torres explained to Europa Press that the highest temperature measured in Spain had been reached the previous year in La Rambla. The La Rambla-Privilegio station recorded 47.6 degrees on August 14, 2021, the same day as the airport's tie.
The figure had not appeared in the daily summary because the station did not transmit to the agency's website on those days, although it was recorded in the Banco Nacional de Datos Climatológicos and had been validated, according to the newspaper Cordópolis. With it, the absolute maximum for Spain remains in the province of Córdoba, ahead of the 47.4 in Montoro.
Has it been exceeded again?
No, according to the Aemet reports consulted. In 2022 the maximum among the main stations was 46.0 degrees in Morón de la Frontera, on July 24. In 2023, 46.8 in Valencia airport, on August 10, with Córdoba airport in second place with 45.0. In July and August 2024 no main station exceeded 43.5.
In 2025 the highest value among the main stations was 45.8 degrees in Jerez de la Frontera on August 17. In the summer of 2026, the hottest since official records began according to Aemet, the maximum among the main stations was 44.2 degrees in Murcia on July 23.
The 46.9 degrees at Córdoba airport therefore remain the highest temperature in its history, reached twice: on July 13, 2017 and on August 14, 2021.
