Spain records the warmest winter of this century

This winter has been in Spain the warmest recorded so far in this century. The average temperature has been 1.8 degrees Celsius above normal in this season (the reference is the average of the period between 1981 and 2010), according to the analysis carried out by the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), under the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. In addition, this winter – Aemet carries out its analysis of the weather stations, in this case, the period from December 1 to February 29 – has been the second warmest in the country since the reliable records of this agency began in 1965. The warmest winter is still that of the 1989-1990 season.

This confirms, also in Spain, a trend that has been observed in many parts of the planet: the accumulation of average temperature records, a phenomenon that specialists attribute to climate change induced by greenhouse gases expelled by humans. As the ministry recalled on Wednesday, the past December and January have also been the warmest ever recorded on the planet (they equaled that of 2015 and 2016 respectively). The same thing has happened in Europe. In addition, last month has been the second warmest February on Earth. In Europe, this winter is considered to be the warmest ever recorded, at 3.4 degrees above the average reference temperature (1981-2010).

The problem, as the experts emphasize, is not so much the record of this winter or of the past December, January and February, but that it is not a specific fact: the maximum temperatures are crowded in this century and in this decade.

The Aemet report highlights that, in addition to the record in the average temperature, other historical values were also experienced this winter. For example, 29.6 degrees have been recorded at the Valencia Airport station and 31.9 degrees at the Tenerife South aerodrome. Unusual minimums have also been detected, such as the 20.4 degrees recorded in Melilla, which means that the autonomous city lived its first tropical night in the middle of winter.

Saharan dust

In its climatological summary of the winter, Aemet highlights the episode of atmospheric dust from the Sahara that affected the entire Canary archipelago between February 22 and 24. The agency explains that, in the absence of confirmation from historical records, this episode has been the most intense recorded in the Canary Islands since the necessary instruments are available to quantify the content of aerosols in the atmosphere.

“The episode consisted of three dust events that took place on three consecutive days,” Aemet said. “The one that occurred on February 23 was especially intense: it presented a maximum peak that exceeded 3600 μg/m3 of PM10 (particulate matter of a diameter less than 10 microns),” the agency adds. “That is 72 times more than the legal limit of PM10 for health protection, which is 50 μg/m3 on average per day,” the agency highlights.

Source: The Country