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Scorching temperatures can be expected in the summer months in southwestern Europe, but not so much in the spring.
But Portugal and Spain have seen temperatures reach the mid to high 30s C in the last week of April.
“We have reached record-breaking values in many parts of our geography, for this part of the year,” said Víctor Resco de Dios, professor of forestry at the University of Lleida in Spain, noting in an email that the temperature was very high. higher than expected in June.
Hot weather has left neighbors on the Iberian Peninsula dealing with heat-related challenges at the start of the year, as officials struggle to keep people safe.
In some cases, seasonal measures related to fire prevention and heat mitigation are implemented earlier than usual.
‘Summer special’
On Thursday, Spain’s national weather service said much of the country would see “typical summer” temperatures, with 38 C in the southern Guadalquivir Valley.
But the mercury rose higher than that, reaching 38.8 C yesterday at Córdoba airport, which the weather service, AEMET, said exceeded the previous April record for mainland Spain.
And while temperatures began to drop in Portugal on Friday, a heat wave remained in parts of Spain.
The AEMET website showed peak temperatures at 35 C or higher in six Spanish provincial capitals on Friday – Albacete, Ciudad Real, Córdoba, Granada, Jaén and Sevilla. More than 20 others are expected to see temperatures of 30 C or higher.
Daniel Argüeso, a climate scientist at the University of the Balearic Islands in Palma, Spain, said the impact of this heat blast will not be known for several weeks.
“It is important to highlight the impact of early heat events compared to summer events, as they disrupt ecosystems and expose populations that are not suited to high heat stress,” he said via email.
The extreme heat in Spain has prompted officials to take measures to ensure members of the public stay cool.
In Madrid, the city’s so-called “beach” – a series of fountains along the Manzanares river – opened on Friday, a month earlier than usual.
Spanish media previously reported that the Ministry of Health will consider implementing a heat prevention plan two weeks early to help regions respond to unseasonably hot weather.
But some people are worried about what will happen when the summer weather is right.
“This is unbearable,” Loli Gutiérrez, a 70-year-old resident of Madrid, told The Associated Press.
“We’re only in April. If this happened in April, what about June?”
Spain has also experienced a long-term drought. The Andalusian regional government says tens of thousands of people in Córdoba province are relying more on drinking water transported to their homes, as drought has exhausted nearby reservoirs.
Argüeso, the climate scientist, said that there are areas in central and southern Spain where, from a drought perspective, there has been no significant rain for months.
He said that this is a position that should be taken before the dry season in the Western Mediterranean “which lasts from June to August, when there is no rain.”
High fire risk
In Portugal, the central city of Mora reached 36.9 C on Thursday, breaking the 78-year-old April record, the weather agency said.
Reuters reported that the Portuguese authorities have put two municipalities – Proença-a-Nova in the center of the country and Tavira in the southern Algarve region – on extreme alert for wildfires.
Wildfires have had deadly consequences in Portugal in recent years, including in 2022.
A series of dangerous forest fires killed dozens of people in 2017.
Resco de Dios said the fire risk in Portugal is “not very high” at the moment compared to other parts of the Iberian Peninsula.
Spain, he said, has seen 54,000 hectares of land burned by wildfires this year, which data from the European Forest Fire Information System show more than half of the area burned in an average full year (about 80,000 hectares) between 2006 and 2022.
“This is another sign that the fire season is getting longer,” he said.
“We have to be careful because extreme years do not create a trend, but the frequency of these extreme years is increasing, which is worrying.”
Argüeso, at the University of the Balearic Islands, said the combination of recent high temperatures with Spain’s ongoing drought “has a direct impact on the fire season,” which he said now starts every year.
“The outlook for summer is not good because soil moisture is very low in most of the Iberian Peninsula,” he said. “There is still hope that May will bring some rain that will ease the situation.”
Meanwhile, French authorities aim to have all firefighting personnel and aircraft ready for deployment by June.
A month earlier than in the past – although the recent experience with wildfires has prompted officials to prepare for that time.
“Last year we had forest fires at the beginning of June, so we decided … to mobilize forces as much as possible, and aircraft and ground forces to be ready by June 1,” said François Peny, inspector general of civil security, on Thursday. while speaking at an air base in Nîmes, France.
“One month earlier than before,” he said. “This is a very strong sign of climate change.”
The country has already experienced its first major fires this year, between Banyuls-sur-Mer and Cerbère – where around 1,000 hectares were burnt earlier this month.
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