The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) confirmed this 2023, along with 2022, will be classified as the two hottest years recorded in Spain since at least 1916According to estimates made through climate reconstructions of experts from the public institution in question.
Both exercises will therefore lead the classification of the hottest since at least that date, that is, more than a century ago, with a difference of at least half a degree, with 2020 and 2017 being next on the list and third place . to high temperatures.
On the other hand, considering the records obtained from meteorological stations, it is calculated that 2023 will close as the second hottest year in the historical series since 1961, slightly behind 2022, as indicated in the indicators. Aemet’s.
The current year has also been very dry and everything shows that 2023 will close with “prolonged meteorological drought across Spain” and is particularly important for Catalonia, where it has been the “busiest” since at least 1961.
The situation is also becoming severe in the Guadiana and Guadalquivir basins and in southern Andalusia, which is facing “the longest drought in the historical series”.
2024 forecast
Looking ahead to 2024, although it is not possible to advance the weather forecast as a whole, it is likely Temperatures are generally above normal until springAemet spokesman Rubén del Campo reported.
when it comes It will rain in the next three months The forecast is that there will be “more than normal” in the northwest of the peninsula in the most likely scenario.
Del Campo insisted that 2023 is an “extremely warm year” and stressed that there were no cold months during the year while awaiting the final balance for December.
Seven “very hot” months in 2023
Actually, three months were normal, two months were hot and seven months were very hot, According to Del Campo, temperature records were broken “by large margins”.
The summer was “very hot” and had the third highest average temperature in the series; only after 2022 and 2003; and the fall was the second warmest, just behind last year.
“Extraordinarily high temperatures were recorded on one out of four days of the year.”
According to an Aemet spokesperson, “We had ninety days where the average temperature for the whole of Spain was within five percent of the historically highest temperature for those dates.”
“Unusually high temperatures were recorded on one in four days of the year.” In contrast, only five days were among the five percent coldest days on record for those dates.
And as for the rains, 2023 was a year that “we can probably consider very dry”According to Del Campo.
Until 26 December 2023, it was the fifth driest year in the series, with 534 liters per square meter across Spain as a whole, 15% less than normal, not even taking into account the rains on the remaining few days of the year. year.
According to an Aemet spokesperson, it seems “almost certain” that 2023 will be one of the seven driest years in the series, and certainly the fourth driest year of the current century.
At the geographical level, Rainfall “distributed very unevenly”. According to Del Campo, we reached “only half” of normal for all of Spain in December.
Although December is generally the second rainiest month of the year, slightly behind November, this month is “very dry” until the 26th.