Climate change caused heat wave in Spain in April – 08/05/2023 – Environment

The extreme heat wave that hit Spain, Portugal and North Africa at the end of April would be “almost impossible without climate change”, points out a scientific report published on Friday (5).

The “exceptionally early heat wave” caused “temperatures up to 20 degrees above normal and records for the month of April broken by up to 6 degrees” in some places, said the report by the World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global body of the network of scientists that evaluates the relationship between extreme weather events and climate disorders.

A dry and hot air mass coming from North Africa last week brought historic temperature records for April in Portugal and mainland Spain, with 36.9°C and 38.8°C, respectively, levels more typical of the months of summer (July and August).

In Morocco, the thermometer exceeded 41°C for the first time in April in several cities, while in parts of Algeria it exceeded the mark of 40°C.

“Man-made climate change has increased the odds of a wave that left record heat in Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Algeria a hundredfold” compared to pre-industrial times, says the report by ten WWA experts.

“This heat would have been almost impossible without climate change”, highlights the study, whose results do not follow the long process of publication in scientific journals, but are prepared based on a scientific methodology.

The temperatures were “so extreme that the event was unusual even in the current hottest climate”, including in a region already accustomed to the multiplication of heat waves in recent years, detailed the WWA.

The thermometers at the end of April marked levels “3.5°C higher than those that would have been recorded without climate change”, according to the group of scientists, who prepared their study in a week.

“April 2023 has been, on average, the hottest and driest month on the Iberian peninsula” since the beginning of the historical series, which begins in 1961, the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) said on Twitter.

most frequent heat

The western Mediterranean region “will experience more frequent and intense heat waves in the future as global warming progresses,” warned Sjoukje Philip, a researcher at the Netherlands Meteorological Institute and a member of the WWA, in a videoconference with journalists.

The unusual heat also came amid “a multi-year historic drought” in this region, which “amplifies temperature extremes”, the report noted.

In Spain, known as the orchard of Europe for its agricultural regions, the main farmers’ union, Coag, estimates that 60% of Spanish farmland is currently “suffocated” by lack of rain.

The country’s dams, which store rainwater to be used in the driest months, are currently at less than 50% of their capacity, and even a quarter in some regions, such as Catalonia.

The lack of water led many farmers to give up spring crops, especially cereals and oilseeds.

“The Mediterranean is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change in Europe. The region is already facing a very long and intense drought and these high temperatures, in a period in which it should rain, make the situation worse”, said Friederike Otto, one of the authors. main points of the WWA report.