Spain: Summer 2022 broke records for heat waves, and expectations for a warmer summer in 2023

Weather of Arabia - Spain is witnessing an increasing frequency of heat waves. The summer of 2022 featured an average temperature of 24 degrees Celsius, the highest in the historical data series since 1961. This summer also recorded the highest number of heatwave days, with 41 days, according to data provided by the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).

According to the Meteorological Agency, there is a 60% chance that the months from July to September 2023 will be warmer than normal in the Iberian Peninsula, and this probability has been raised to 70% in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, according to the Spanish newspaper La Pangordia.

The agency predicted that the first special heatwave warning from Emmett this summer between June 25 and 28 focused on the southwest of the peninsula. However, Emmett notes that the episode of extreme temperatures did not finally meet the requirements set by the state agency for a heat wave.

According to the Meteorological Agency, in a report on the state of the climate in Spain, the heat wave with the largest geographical extent and intensity in the historical series - and the second longest - occurred last summer, between July 9 and 26, 2022, and the second heat wave lasted in the summer of 2022 for 18 days. days, hitting 44 counties and presenting an anomaly of 4.5°C.

And the third heat wave in the summer of 2022 began after only three days and continued 16 more times, making it the third longest wave recorded in Spain since 1975, according to the Emmett report. At the end of the season, all provinces of Spain except Pontevedra were hit by at least one heat wave, according to for Limit data.

Dominique Roy, head of data science at the Climate Research Foundation (FIC), emphasized that extreme heat in the summer of 2022 is a preview "of what is expected to happen, ultimately, in the middle of the century and will be the new normal for decades to come."