Full summer in April. Already hit by a catastrophic drought, Spain will experience an exceptional heat wave this week, with peaks expected at 40°C, additional signs of the acceleration of global warming. Linked to the arrival of a “mass of very hot and dry air of African origin”, it will result in “exceptionally high temperatures for this time of year”, announced in a press release the agency. Spanish meteorological (Aemet).
“40°C” in the heart of Andalusia
According to the public institute, temperatures will exceed 30°C on Tuesday and Wednesday in a large part of the south of the country, with possible peaks of 35°C – i.e. “summer values” – in Andalusia (south) and in the regions of Valencia and Murcia (southeast). They will then continue their progression to reach “generally 35°C” Thursday and Friday in the southern half of the country and the Ebro valley (north-east), and even “40°C” in the Guadalquivir valley, in the heart of Andalusia.
These temperatures will be “6 to 10°C” higher on average than normal for the season, specifies Aemet. But in some places, they will even exceed “15 to 20 degrees” the normal values of the end of April, specified on Twitter the spokesman of the agency, Ruben del Campo.
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, and where the authorities have already issued orders to reduce water use.
“Irreversible damage”
Due to a lack of rainfall, reservoirs – which store rainwater so that it can be used in drier months – are at just a quarter of their capacity in this 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 since groundwater and Spanish reservoirs have been damaged in recent years by a chronic lack of precipitation, the Minister of Agriculture admitted last week. Luis Planas.
In a press release, the agricultural employers’ confederation Asaja also sounded the alarm. “The intensity of this drought is terrible” and leads to a “chaotic” situation, with heavy losses to be expected for cereal and oilseed crops, she underlined. According to Coag, the main farmers’ union, 60% of Spanish agricultural land is currently “asphyxiated” by the lack of rainfall. “Irreversible damage has been caused to more than 3.5 million hectares of cereals,” he worries.
Risk of fires
According to the Aemet, this early heat wave, coupled with sustained wind and very low humidity, will increase the risk of fires over the next few days, as firefighters have already fought several large wildfires since the end of March.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis), Spain is already on a record for burned areas since the beginning of the year, with 54,000 hectares affected on April 23, against 17,126 hectares at the end of the year. same date in 2022, a record year for fires.
European country on the front line in the face of climate change, with nearly 75% of its territory in the process of desertification according to the UN, Spain experienced its hottest year on record last year, with several scorching heat waves , according to the Aemet. This phenomenon, linked according to experts to the acceleration of global warming, has put the question of water at the forefront of the political scene in recent days in the country, against the backdrop of the electoral campaign for the regional elections at the end of May and the legislative elections scheduled for the end of the year.