2023-04-27 19:05:08
- Writing
- BBC News World
This Thursday the record for the highest temperature ever recorded in a month of April was broken in Spain.
The record figure of 38.7 ºC was reached at the Córdoba airport, in the south of the country, shortly after 5:00 p.m. local time.
For days, a heat wave has hit the country with temperatures between 10 and 15 °C warmer than expected for April.
It has been driven by a mass of very hot air coming from Africa, along with a slow moving weather system.
“This is not normal. Temperatures are completely out of control this year“Cayetano Torres, spokesman for the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), told the BBC.
Experts are surprised by the magnitude of the heat experienced in southern Spain in recent days.
“This heat event in Spain is absolutely extreme, unprecedented, with temperatures never seen before in April. In some places, records are being broken by a margin of 5ºC, something that has happened only a handful of times in the weather stations of everyone,” said Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist who runs the Twitter account called Extreme Temperatures.
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Cristina Linares, a scientist at the Carlos III Health Institute, warned in particular of the impact of heat on the poor.
“Poverty is the key factor in explaining why there are more deaths associated with extreme temperatures. Income is the factor most closely related to the impact of heat on day-to-day deaths.”
The highest temperature recorded in the Iberian Peninsula in a month of April was 37.4ºC, in Murcia, in the southeast of the country, 12 years ago.
According to meteorologists, a combination of factors is responsible for that week’s temperatures.
A very hot air mass from Africa is driving up temperatures, along with a high-pressure weather system; this combined with a clear sky allows more sunlight to penetrate. The soil, already damaged by the drought suffered by Spain, is unable to evaporate the heat.
The water reservoirs in the Guadalquivir basin, which crosses twelve provinces in the south of the country, are at 25% of their capacity.
That is why another concern is agriculture.
Many farmers are experiencing difficulties due to the continued lack of rain, and the Madrid government is asking the European Union for financial help.
Some owners say they won’t be planting crops due to dry conditions, which could have implications for food supplies across Europe.
image source, Getty Images
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