In the latest episode of unusual heat in Spain these days, 68 temperature records have been broken. However, the most unusual trademark is not officially registered. Some observatories recorded a high of 30°, an unprecedented temperature in the country and Europe for the month of January. In the town of Gavarde in Alicante, 30.7 degrees were measured this Thursday, January 25th. However, this mark is neither recorded in the official annals nor officially counted, since it was not registered in the network of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), but in that of the Valencian Association of Meteorology (Avamet), where several of its 42 stations exceeded 30°. As Roberto Granda, meteorologist at Eltiempo.es, contextualizes, although the Avamet data is “very reliable”, “in the official network the highest value was 29.6° in Chelva (Valencia).” Thus, the heat limit in January remains official at 29.8 degrees, measured in Alicante in 2021.
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As the meteorologist explains, if these records had been made on the official network (whose measurements are always taken under the same conditions), it would be the highest temperature recorded this month in Spain and Europe. The Inforatge weather station in Castelló recorded a tenth more, 30.8°, while other unofficial networks, such as Suremet, from the FrostSE Meteorological Association for the dissemination of meteorology in the southeast of the peninsula, They also recorded temperatures above 30° in Murcia and Alicante, with a spectacular 31.5° in the Murcian city of Guadalupe.
Confirm: The 30.7 ° C recorded in Calles (els Serrans) and Gavarda (la Ribera Alta) are the highest temperatures recorded in a month in all of Europe.
Estem impressionats. 😳 https://t.co/gZ5j1L4dFL
– AVAMET (@avamet) January 25, 2024
As a first preliminary assessment of the episode, the observatories of Aemet's main network – consisting of 93 stations manned by agency personnel – recorded 24 absolute monthly high records since Tuesday, seven of them on Tuesday and the rest on Thursday. That is, it is the highest value recorded in the thermometers of these stations this month on record. The list includes several cities that are usually among the coldest in the country, such as Ávila, Cuenca, Logroño, Soria and Teruel, in addition to Albacete and the southern cities of Cádiz, Jaén, Granada, Huelva and Córdoba.
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The number of ephemeris pulverized by heat rises to 68 Adding data from secondary observatories – from 814 automatic stations – results in a very warm month, following the trend prevailing over the last five winters, according to Granda's count, which has recorded 129 recordings so far this month. And the records that occur this Friday still have to be added to the list, with an eye on what is happening in the capital, Madrid. “It's an absolute scandal, it's very abnormal,” Granda summed up to this newspaper.
The direct cause of this episode is a combination of two stabilizing factors. On the one hand, a ridge – a high pressure area at medium and high altitudes of the troposphere combined with warm air, which is more typical of summer – is “very robust and powerful, which has reached record values for January” and a “more high pressure area”. Intense, even at the surface, which will not be record-breaking, but will be in the high range.” And beyond the direct causes, Granda points out that “the main suspect is global warming, as there are no attribution studies to support this .”
In fact, the temperatures of these days also influence how cold it is no longer in Spain, which already records twice as many warm days in January as in the sixties, the theoretically coldest month of the year. The last month classified as cold by Aemet was April 2022; the last cold season, spring 2018; and last cold year, 2013.
Among all these records, Granda is surpassed by those of the Madrid port of Navacerrada, which has broken its maximum on two consecutive days, on Wednesday with 17° and on Thursday with 18.3°, and also the one with the highest minimum on that day. , with 10.2°. These values meant to go a step beyond what was originally planned, making the values that should be produced in Spain belong to those of April or even May. “The average temperature on Wednesday in Navacerrada was typical for mid or late June, i.e. for summer,” says the Aemet spokesman. Rubén del Campo in X (formerly Twitter).
“The average temperature was normally 14.1°C, the mean [el punto intermedio de todos los valores], for December 25th it would be -1°,” notes Granda. For this meteorologist, these numbers suggest “even more dramatic” data, because extrapolated over the summer they would give an average daily temperature of around 34°, with a maximum of 40° and a minimum of 28°, “really crazy”.
These high values reached in the Guadarrama Mountains, where all the snow that has fallen in recent weeks has melted, as has happened in many areas of the Pyrenees, “are due to a phenomenon of thermal inversion due to ground subsidence.” There is a lot of heat in the middle and upper layers of the atmosphere, with record temperatures at 1,500 meters, and because of the mountain ridge, this air is forced to sink and as it sinks, it is compressed and heated,” which explains the reason why it produces higher temperatures in high areas maxima than in low areas.
In addition, Teruel has exceeded its maximum for two consecutive days and the Albacete air base, a station with data since 1939, has reached 22.8°. And there could be more anniversaries to come this Friday, even though the worst part of the episode is already behind us. For this day, according to Granda, “decreases are expected in most of the country, with the exception of the low-lying areas in the center, some points in the south, the Ebro Valley and the northern plateau, where there could still be an increase.” The decline will be particularly noticeable in the north and east, but temperatures will remain above normal.
Over the weekend the heat will subside somewhat in the south, but it will become more severe in the north. “The maximum temperatures will decrease on Saturday throughout the east, in the Ebro Valley, in the center and in the south, but they will rise on the northern plateau as the fog subsides and on the Cantabrian coast,” explains the meteorologist. On Sunday the same situation of stability and high temperatures will continue, with a new decrease in many areas, but increases in the Basque Country, Asturias and Cantabria, where temperatures can reach 21°, 22° and 23°. So while the values will no longer be as extreme, they will remain high, with highs between 18° and 22° in many areas of the country. For next week, “the ridge is expected to remain in place, albeit weakened, guaranteeing the continuity of the unusual heat for the season.”
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