Adiós to the Spanish winter, says study after hot January days double
As temperatures in Spain soared to new records on Thursday, the country may be saying adiós to the traditional winter freeze, according to a study.
“Spring has come in January,” read one headline in Spanish newspaper La Voz de Galicia, as temperatures exceeded 20°C.
Spain was expected to break records for January with temperatures of up to 27°C (81F) in the southeast and Mediterranean coast of Spain as an anticyclone passed over the Iberian Peninsula.
Forecasters said the hottest places would be Murcia at 27°C, Granada (26°C), Valencia (25°C) and Alicante, Girona, Tenerife and Seville at 24°C.
Roberto Granda, a meteorologist for private forecaster elTiempo.es, said his study showed the number of hot days in January had doubled from four to eight between the 1960s and the past ten years. Barcelona saw the sharpest rise, from two hot days during the 1960s to 11 in the past decade.
He defined hot days as those at top 20 per cent of average temperature recordings in different parts of Spain during the month of January. In Barcelona, currently facing a drought, anything above 14.2°C was classed as a warm day while in Seville, temperatures above 18.2°C were classed as hot.
Mr Granda compared temperatures between 1961-1970 and those between 2014 and 2023 at weather stations around the country.
“It is most certainly related to climate change that we are seeing warmer temperatures in January,” he told i.
“We have seen temperatures in winter which are more like those of spring. The difference in temperatures between the Equator and the Poles are narrowing and it is one of the consequences that we are seeing in Spain which is in the south of Europe, closer to Africa.”
Mr Granda added: “It is true that we are saying adiós to the colder days of winter. It is fading in some places. The reality is this is what we have observed in the past 40 or 50 years. It is sad but this is what we are experiencing.”
The average temperature in January last year was 5.9°C, according to Aemet, the state forecaster, compared to 4.6°C in 1961 – figures that include night time temperatures.
