Spain faces the “start of the warmest October since there are records” | Spain

“We are facing the start of the warmest month of October since there are records in Spain.” This is the clear and forceful message that Rubén del Campo, spokesperson for the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), sends this Monday after certifying that on Sunday, October 1 Badajoz, with 38°, and Montoro (Córdoba), with 38.2°, “exceeded the previous maximum temperature record for the month recorded in peninsular Spain” ―37.5° reached in Marbella (Málaga) in 2014―. In addition, some 350 automatic stations in the agency’s network, that is, about 40%, reached or exceeded 32°. In most parts of the country there were records between 7° and 14° higher than normal for this time of year.

In addition, numerous monthly temperature records were broken, in some cases with a forcefulness that defies the laws of statistics. “The Salamanca airport stands out, which was beaten by more than 3°. 34.8° were reached and the previous October record was 31.5°, recorded in 2017, in a series that is almost 80 years old,” highlights Del Campo, who also notes the data from Burgos with a maximum of 32.1°. , again 3° above the previous record, which was 29.1° in 2004, in a series that is 80 years old.

Daroca (Zaragoza) is also surprising, “because it is a station that is more than a century old”, which reached 34.4°. The previous record of 32.9° dated back to 1925. Another centenary station, that of Retiro Park in Madrid, equaled its record with 30°, a level that was reached in 1930. In the Canary Islands it was 36° in points in the south of Gran Canaria but, at the moment, there are no records, since the highest records in October there exceed 39°. In the archipelago, with a climate different from the rest of Spain, Nine heat waves have been recorded in October since 1975, compared to zero in mainland Spain.

In addition, September 29 and 30 and October 1 were a record for warm days, that is, they were the hottest days compared to the same days in all Septembers and Octobers since 1950. There have been three consecutive days, but Aemet expects that, adding this week’s, there are six consecutive ones, so the country will begin October with 26 of them compared to none cold. In an unaltered climate, five warm records and another five cold ones per year are expected. In 2022, the warmest year documented in Spainthere were 35 warm ones and only two cold ones.

And the worst thing is that Aemet still does not set a date for the end of this extraordinary episode of heatthat started last thursday with Sunday as the warmest day. “The rest of the week will continue to be very warm for the time of year in the Peninsula, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, although there will be ups and downs depending on the days and areas.” In general, temperatures will continue to exceed 30° in most of the territory, from 32° to 34° in the southern half and from 34° to 36° in the Guadiana and Guadalquivir valleys and occasionally in other areas. “These are daytime temperatures between 5° or 10° above normal and in some points, especially in the north, between 10° and 15° above normal,” Del Campo contextualizes.

This Monday, with Cantabria, Basque Country and Canary Islands under yellow notice, the minimum of a scale of three, hardly any changes in temperatures are expected. “They will decrease in areas of the Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands, also in Galicia, but they will rebound in the Cantabrian Sea,” says the Aemet spokesperson, who warns that in Bilbao it could reach 37°. The thermometers will once again be between 36° and 38° in points of the Guadiana and Guadalquivir and between 30° and 34° in most of the rest of the Peninsula, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands.

On Tuesday, the passage of a front will leave weak rains in the Cantabrian Sea and will lead to “a clear thermal decrease in the northern third of the Peninsula and, above all, in the Cantabrian communities”, where the drop can be extraordinary – 10° less than Monday or even more. “Bilbao, for example, will probably not exceed 22°, 15° less than the previous day.” In the rest of Spain, more wood: from 30° to 32° in large areas of the country, including the Balearic Islands, from 32° to 34° in the southern half and in large areas of the Canary Islands, where the haze will increase, and from 34° to 36° in a good part of Extremadura and Andalusia, with 36° to 38° in points in the interior of the province of Huelva and in the Guadalquivir valley.

On Wednesday “stable weather will prevail again, with no rain anywhere in Spain and it could be a day with drops, with drops in temperatures in the eastern and southern thirds, as in the Balearic Islands, but they would rise in Galicia, Cantabria and “upper Ebro.” In the rest “the warm atmosphere will continue.” The cities on the Cantabrian coast will reach between 22° and 25°, those on the Mediterranean between 28° and 30° and in the interior they will exceed 30°, except in areas of the northern third, which will be between 25° and 28°. And as has been happening since Thursday, the highest temperatures will be in the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir, with 35° to 37°. “The heat will also continue in the Canary Islands, where temperatures will not vary too much,” the Aemet spokesperson completes the picture.

Starting Thursday “it seems that temperature rises will predominate, especially in the northern third.” Thus, the summer and dry atmosphere will last for a few more days. “It is likely that a drop in temperature will occur at the beginning of next week, when a frontal system could arrive that would leave some rain, mainly in the northwest,” predicts the expert, adding that the drop in temperatures would also occur in Canary Islands.