Nearly 30°C in Spain, hit by a heat wave in the middle of winter

Several local temperature records for the month of January were broken across the country. The mercury has reached a near summer level.

A heat wave worthy of the start of summer in the middle of January. Temperatures around 30°C were recorded on Thursday January 25 in Spain, according to the meteorological agency (Aemet). In detail, according to Aemet, the thermometer rose to 29.5°C Thursday afternoon in the Valencia region, 28.5°C in Murcia and 27.8°C near Malaga, in the south of Andalusia.

Several local temperature records for the month of January were also broken across the country. Mercury has “reached or exceeded 20°C” In “nearly 400 stations” weather forecasts in the country, or almost one in two, Aemet spokesperson Ruben del Campo pointed out on the social network The latter mentioned a “anomaly” and emphasized that this is a level “proper in the middle or end of June”that’s to say “summer”.

More and more frequent heat episodes

According to the agency, the thermometer did not fall below 10°C during the night from Wednesday to Thursday in the small ski resort of Puerto de Navacerrada, located in the Madrid region, at 1,900 meters. altitude. David Corell, researcher at the University of Valencia, explains that this heat in the middle of winter, which also affects the south-east of France, is caused by the presence of a powerful anticyclone above the Mediterranean.

Accustomed to high temperatures, Spain is faced with increasingly numerous and frequent heat episodes, sometimes outside the summer months, which worry scientists. The country has already recorded unusually high temperatures in December, with a peak of 29.9°C in Malaga, a national record for the month of December. Since the 19th century, the average temperature of the Earth warmed by 1.1°C. Scientists have established with certainty that this increase is due to human activities, which consume fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas).