Southern Spain in July - too hot & too crowded?

I guess the answer would be, how hot is too hot for you? I was melting in October and my travel partner was happy as a clam. I love Spain in April. You can look up average temperature for any time of year and see what your up against. I would not go in July. J

Considering that on July 19 this year it was a humid 88 degrees in Barcelona and 112 degrees in Malaga— then, no— I don’t think it’d be crazy at all to consider giving the torrid weather a miss. Of course no one can say what will happen next year, but the trajectory of climate change does not seem to be moving toward cooler temps in southern Spain during mid-July.

Definitely not an ideal time for most of Spain. You'd probably be OK across the northern coast (Basque Country to Galicia) and at altitude in the Pyrenees.

I had great weather (per historical patterns) in southern Spain throughout the month of April 2019, once I got past a couple of rainy days in Ubeda (northern Andalucia).

There are plenty of places in Spain in July where it won’t be sweltering, but Andalucía, Extremadura, and Zaragoza are not on that list. Mid to late May through mid September are probably when you’ll find the most tourists and crowds at the main tourist destinations.

The "problem" in Barcelona is that we have been receiving between 6 and 8 million tourists per year every year, turning the city into one of the top destinations in Europe for the past several decades. Noting that the city is "barely" 101 km2 (39 sq miles) and harbours 1.7 million residents, one can understand why it is one of the densest cities in Europe with 16000 people per sq km (41000 per sq mile).

So.... yes, we receive tourism all year round and lots of them! From May to October, most of you come to Barcelona, but the rest of the year can be also "busy" at tourist spots in the city.

As per climate, the coast of Catalonia -where Barcelona is located- can be very humid, so while temperatures are not that high in summer time -Barcelona is 32-36ºC (90-97F) on average- days with high humidity (>70%) can skyrocket the so-called "comfort temperature" (the sensation of heat) to 40-42ºC (104-108F). Furthermore, at wee hours, temperature can hold sustained at 28-30ºC (82-86F)

I remember being in Barcelona on an August day in 2016 and thinking it was really hot. Then I passed a temperature display reading 28C (82F). That's not all that hot. It was the humidity.

Yes Anne, that's the problem in Barcelona: humidity.

And often I hear some visitors, especially from certain very hot and humid areas of parts of the US, saying "bah!, we are used to this back home".... but one of the key differences is that back home you go from an A/Cd room to an A/Cd car to an A/Cd mall or movie theatre or restaurant and then back on an A/Cd car to an A/Cd home.

While visiting in Europe, you're gonna walk -whether you like it or not-, you're gonna queue under the scorching sun, and you're gonna be in places with no A/C (yeah, there are still a few of those)... so "it's certainly not the same albeit the humidity back home can be the same". That's something to take into consideration when planning to visit Barcelona -or anywhere on the coast for that matter- during May-Oct.