The first fortnight of August 2015 placed it in the record books, with the highest recorded August temperatures since records began in 1942.
According to the national weather forecasting agency, AEMET, the average temperature was 28 degrees centigrade, with an average low of 26 degrees and a high of 33.6 degrees. The average maximum temperature since 1942 has been 30.6 degrees. However, the second half of the month saw temperatures decrease, with averages at 22 degrees minimum and 31.5 maximum. High levels of humidity also contributed to the sensation that the temperature was higher than it actually was.
However, the hottest month this summer was still July, with an average temperature of 28.8 degrees centigrade.
The month of May also registered record temperatures, which contributed to 2015 being one of the 15 hottest years on record, 12 of which have occurred since 2000.
The month of August also showed an increase of 3.4% in the number of passengers coming through Malaga airport over the same period last year. This, together with the escalating heat, also had an effect on the demand for car rental services and car transfers from Malaga airport to Marbella, Puerto Banus and the surrounding areas, as most of the Spanish public transport lacks air conditioning. All these factors contributed to the fact that Malaga transfer business and luxury chauffeur services had the busiest year in the last 10 years since the recession.
The increase in the number of tourists spending their holidays in the Costa del Sol is mainly due to the end of the economic crisis in northern Europe and the ongoing instability in North Africa. Traditional tourist destinations in Tunisia and Egypt have been severely affected in the last five years since the start of the so called Arab Spring, which has been increasingly beneficial tothe South of Spain in general, and more specifically to Marbella.
