ARCHIVED - Montoro in Cordoba sets new Spanish temperature record with 47.2 degrees

A gradual decrease in temperatures across Spain is forecast to begin on Monday

The sweltering heatwave which has emptied city streets throughout Spain over the last few days as people seek refuge in their air-conditioned living-rooms left a new record temperature of 47.2 degrees on Saturday afternoon, when at 17.10 the thermometer at the weather station in the Córdoba town of Montoro reached a blistering 47.2 degrees.

This raised the bar from the previous all-time high of 46.9 degrees, recorded in the city of Córdoba on July 13, 2017, and narrowly eclipsed the figures of 46.6ºC in Écija (Sevilla) and 46.5ºC in Aguilar de la Frontera (Córdoba) at around the same time as the new record was being set in Montoro.

During Saturday afternoon the temperature charts were dominated by locations in Andalucía, the rest of the top ten featuring places in the provinces of Córdoba, Sevilla and Granada as various locations reported maximums of over 45 degrees.

On Monday August 16 the forecast is for temperatures to begin to fall in mainland Spain, albeit only gradually, and the only red alert for extreme heat is in the island of Gran Canaria, where Aemet are warning that afternoon highs could reach 41 degrees. However, orange and yellow alerts remain in place in the whole of south-western Spain, with highs likely to reach the low 40s in various parts of Andalucía, Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Madrid.

Global climate change

These alarmingly high temperatures in Spain in mid-August come after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that July was the hottest month ever on record on Earth, a statistic described by Rick Spinrad, the head of the NOAA, as a confirmation of the worrying trends in global climate.

The organization reports that the average land and sea temperature on the planet during July was 0.93 degrees higher than the 15.8ºC calculated as the mean for the 20^th century, reaching its highest level since records were first compiled 142 years ago. At the same time, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reports that this July was the third warmest on record, and although the data of the two groups differ slightly they both underline the rate at which the Earth’s climate is warning up.

The two organizations also concur that the result is that more climatic catastrophes are likely to occur, such as the disastrous forest fires which have hit Greece and Turkey as well as the USA this summer and dramatic recent flooding in China and Germany.

This weekend firefighters battled in several major forest fires across Spain, the worst being in Ávila (Castilla y León) where more than 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes.

Image 1: @Aguilas_Turismo

Image 2: Aemet heat alerts Monday August 16