It has been hot, very hot in Spain this year.
According to the national meteorological agency (AEMET), 2022 was the hottest year recorded since at least 1916. On Twitter, the agency stressed that it was “the first time that the annual average temperature (exceeded ) 15°C”, with almost 15.5°C.
“Until 2011, 14.5°C had never been exceeded.
Since then, this has happened five times,” AEMET added.
On the podium of the years of great heat, we then find 2017 and 2020.
The AEMET specifies that it has retrospectively established the average annual temperatures between 1916 and 1961 from isolated measurements and statistical models.
Heat waves, monster fires, drought…
Like part of Europe, Spain was hit in 2022 by several scorching heat waves during the summer, marked by fires of unparalleled amplitude, excess mortality and a high level of drought.
“For the first time, two consecutive seasons in the same year (summer and autumn) were the hottest in the series”, had underlined the AEMET on December 21 in a provisional report.
The deaths of nearly 4,744 people in Spain are attributable to the heat during the summer of 2022, according to excess mortality estimates from a Public Health Institute.
This country has also seen more than 300,000 hectares reduced to ashes by fires in 2022, the worst toll since the start of measures in 2000, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
"Taking into account the rains recorded until December 15, this is the third driest year of the historical series", noted the AEMET in its provisional report.
Water reserves were at 43% of their capacity at the end of December, against 53% on average over the last ten years, according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, on which the AEMET depends.
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