TEMPERATURES HAVE STARTED to slowly ease in Spain after a heatwave that saw parts of the country experience heat “practically unheard of” in May.
However, the national forecaster has warned that the risk of fires remains high in many areas, especially the northeast.
The heatwave at this time of year fits into the pattern of global temperatures rising and more frequent, more intense extreme weather events caused by the climate crisis.
The hot weather is beginning to ease and is expected to drop further as cold wind moves in from the Atlantic but remains relatively high for May.
The hottest temperatures recorded so far today have been 37.6 degrees at 2.50pm in Velez-Malaga and 35.3 degrees at 5.20pm in Estepona along the Costa del Sol, a region frequented by millions of visitors every year.
Yesterday, according to Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET, the hottest temperature recorded was 38.1 degrees Celsius at 3.50pm in Llimiana, which is around 170km northwest of Barcelona.
It was closely followed by 38 degrees Celsius at 4pm at Caldes de Montbui, just 40km outside Barcelona.
In the previous days, the hot and dry air that blew in from Africa caused temperatures to reach more than 40 degrees Celsius at Seville airport and the Andalucían city of Jaén.
AEMET said that in many areas temperatures on Saturday did not fall below 25 degrees Celsius, “something practically unheard of” in May.
The forecaster has warned that the risk of fires is high in many inland areas in the eastern half of the country, with a particularly high risk in the northeastern corner, though the risk of lower in western regions.
In the northern region of Navarra, 14 weather stations registered their highest historical temperature for the month of May.
Yellow alerts warned the public that some activities could be dangerous in the extreme heat and the government advised wearing light clothing, staying hydrated, and taking extra care of children and vulnerable people.
Globally, each decade in the last forty years has been successively warmer than any decade that came before it since 1850, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found.
The IPCC’s latest report on the physical science of climate change reported that in Europe, the frequency and intensity of hot weather extremes have risen in recent decades.
It’s expected that hot extremes will continue to become more regular and intense while the frequency of cold spells and frost days will decrease.
In India and Pakistan, a prolonged heatwave over the last two months brought temperatures in the high 40s far above expectations for this time of year.
India’s average maximum temperatures were at their highest of any March in 122 years and April was the hottest and second-driest that Pakistan experienced since 1961.
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