ARCHIVED - Gota fría storms made 2019 the wettest year on record in parts of Murcia

New daily temperature and rainfall records were set in Murcia and Alcantarilla last year

The State meteorological agency Aemet has published its provisional summary of the weather in Spain during 2019, including among the highlights the higher than average temperatures and unusually heavy rainfall in the Region of Murcia.

Temperature

In terms of temperature 2019 falls into the category of “very warm” in Spain with an average of 15.9 degrees. 0.8ºC higher than the historical average. This makes it the sixth warmest year since comparable data were first compiled in 1965, with all six being among the last 14 of those 55 years.

The anomaly was at least +1ºC in many parts of the country including some areas of Murcia: the following map shows that the whole of the Region is classified as “EC” (extremely warm, i.e. the highest figure on record), “MC” (very warm, within the top 20 per cent) or “C”, within the top 40 per cent.

Among the episodes of extreme heat during the year were those between 26^th June and 1^st July, 20^th and 25^th July and 6^th and 10^th August, with maximums rising above 40 degrees in all three cases, and while the hottest temperature recorded in 2019 was 43.4 degrees in Lleida on 29^th June the measurement of 42.8 degrees on 9^th August in Alcantarilla, close to the city of Murcia, was not far behind.

At the same time, the minimum temperatures of 26.8 and 26.9 degrees in Murcia and Alcantarilla on 7th July were the highest on record at these locations.

Rainfall

While the year in Spain as a whole was “normal” in terms of rainfall (an average of 628 millimetres, 3 per cent below the historical average) the figures in Murcia are distorted enormously by one of the severest “gota fría” storms on record in the middle of September.

This event and a second gota fría in December resulted in the year being classified as “extremely wet” or “very wet” in Murcia, Alicante and Albacete, more than doubling the historical average in certain areas. At Alicante-Elche airport the annual total of 667 mm was the highest on record, and in both Murcia and Alcantarilla 12^th September 2019 was the wettest day on record with figures of 169 and 180 millimetres respectively, while in San Javier the official figure was 205 mm on the same day and another 102 mm fell on 2^nd December at the same location.

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