Met Office Predicts an Abnormally Warm Summer
June 22nd, 2011
The first heatwave is set to arrive next week and will affect the south and the west of the country.
Heat in Seville
Summer has now officially begun and although thermometers have already been reaching very summery levels, the first actual heatwave is expected by early next week and will be concentrated particularly around the south and west of mainland Spain, where temperatures could reach 40ºC, Angel Rivera, spokesman for the Meteorological Office stated in ABC News.
The first days of summer have already given a glimpse of how the season will progress. The seasonal forecast prepared by the Met Office suggests that temperatures may be higher than normal for the whole of Spain, and especially pronounced in eastern and southern Spain and in the islands. According to Rivera, it “will be in keeping with previous hot summers.”
Warmest in 60 Years
The heatwave follows what has also been a very warm spring. So much so that the three months of March, April and May were recorded as the warmest in the last 60 years. The average temperature in Spain as a whole has been 15.3ºC, which is a temperature anomaly of 2.3ºC above the average temperature between 1971 and 2000, and exceeds the values reached in spring of 1997 (15.24ºC on average) and 2006 (15.13ºC).
As for rain, the Met Office recorded 10% above normal, with very clear differences between northern and southern Spain. Thus, it was a dry spring in areas of western Galicia, Cantabria, Basque Country and northern Navarre, where the accumulated rainfall did not even reach 50% of the average, while the wettest areas were southwestern Spain, northeast inland areas and the Canary Islands.
