Spain will experience this week an exceptional heat wave for this time of year, with peaks of 40 ° C expected in Andalusia (South), while the country is experiencing a prolonged drought with catastrophic consequences for agriculture.
The country will experience in the coming days “exceptionally high temperatures for this time of year”, worthy of “summer values”, warned in a press release the Spanish meteorological agency (Aemet). This heat wave, linked to the arrival of a “mass of very hot and dry air of African origin on the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands”, will peak at the end of the week in the south of the country, specifies the public institute.
According to Aemet, temperatures will exceed 30°C on Tuesday and Wednesday in much of the south of the country, with possible peaks of 35°C in Andalusia, as well as in the regions of Valencia and Murcia, on the Mediterranean coast. They will then continue their progression to reach “widespread 35°C” on Thursday and Friday in the southern half of the country and in the Ebro Valley (northeast), with up to “40°C” expected in the Guadalquivir Valley, Andalusia.
According to Aemet, temperatures will be 6 to 10 ° C higher this week on average than normal for the season. But in some places, they will even be “15 to 20 degrees” above normal values ??for the end of April, agency spokesman Ruben del Campo said on Twitter.
This heat wave comes as Spain is experiencing an abnormally hot and dry spring, particularly in Catalonia (North-East), facing its worst drought in decades, where the authorities have already issued orders to reduce the use of water. With no rainfall, reservoirs – which store rainwater so it can be used in drier months – are at just a quarter of their capacity in the region, according to local authorities. And many farmers have had to give up their sowing in recent weeks.
“We are in a difficult moment hydrologically,” especially as groundwater and reservoirs in Spain have been damaged in recent years by a chronic lack of rainfall, the Minister of Agriculture acknowledged last week. Luis Planas.
According to data from Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) released on Thursday, Europe, where the temperature is climbing twice as fast as the global average, experienced its hottest summer on record last year. data in 1950.
