Spain has officially entered a long-term drought due to high temperatures and low rainfall over the past three years and is likely to face another year of heat waves and wildfires.
The country’s weather agency Aemet said Friday that statistics showed Spain entered a protracted drought in late 2022 and the first three months of 2023 showed no significant signs of change.
“The first available forecasts for the summer of 2023 indicate a likely situation with temperatures back above normal,” said Aemet spokesman Rubén del Campo, adding that in the coming summer “the risk of fire could be very high given the high temperatures”. .
However, Del Campo pointed out that the country had already experienced severe droughts in 2017, 2005 and in the late 1990s and 1980s.
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“To put it in context, we’re in a drought, but there have been worse droughts, which doesn’t mean it won’t be important,” he said at a news conference.
Aemet says Spain is geographically vulnerable to high temperatures and drought, but climate change is a key factor.
Wildfire burns near Altura, Spain on August 19, 2022. Spain has officially entered a protracted drought and is likely to face another year of heat waves and wildfires. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz, File)
Del Campo said Spain has warmed by 34F since the 1960s, warming that is noticeable year-round but especially so in the summer – when average temperatures have risen by 1.6 degrees.
He said such an increase might not seem all that big, but pointed out that “if we’re talking about a scenario as big as the Iberian Peninsula, half a million square kilometers, annual data, this trend to many more hours Heat leads”, which he These have doubled in the last 10 to 12 years compared to the heat hours of previous years.
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Last year was Spain’s sixth driest year and the hottest since 1961, when records began. Rainfall was 16% below average and daytime temperatures averaged above 59 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time.
However, December was among the wettest in recent years, which improved the situation considerably. Recent rains have boosted water reserves in reservoirs to 51% of capacity, well above the dangerous low of below 35% in late 2022. But at least two areas, most notably Spain’s north-eastern Catalonia around Barcelona, are suffering severe shortages.
Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition says that while the situation is “worrying”, there are currently no drinking water restrictions in any part and none are foreseen this year.
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There may be localized restrictions on agricultural and industrial water, as in the case of Catalonia, which has had to limit agricultural and industrial water use since November 2022. It is forbidden to use drinking water to wash cars or fill swimming pools.
Land heatwaves have become commonplace in many countries around the Mediterranean, with dramatic side effects such as wildfires, droughts, crop losses and uncomfortably high temperatures.
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