Date Published: 19/06/2020
ARCHIVED - This spring was the wettest in Murcia for 16 years
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
March exceeded the average value for rainfall by 687%, making it the wettest March of at least the last 80 years
It’s no wonder that hayfever sufferers have had more than just Covid-19 to cope with this spring and the fields and roadside areas are still covered with abundant vegetation and flowers.
The wet spring has been visible in many aspects of daily life ( the local shepherd has the fattest sheep seen in several years), and the weather has been noticeably wetter and warmer than normal, the official figures presented by Aemet on Friday morning, confirming what most long-term residents already know.
On Saturday the wettest spring in the last sixteen years will conclude in the region of Murcia, the average rainfall of 193 l / m2, more than double the average value for this time of year (212%) and warmer than normal, with an average temperature of 15.9 ºC, +0.8 ºC above the normal average.
This quarter has been the fifth wettest in at least the last 80 years, the second wettest in the 21st century and the wettest in the last sixteen years since 2004, a year in which an average of 214 l / m2 accumulated during the spring months.
The average of the maximum temperatures of the quarter was 21.4 ºC, with an anomaly of +0.2 ºC, and the average of the minimums, 10.3 ºC, with an anomaly of +1.3 ºC.This effectively means that temperatures have been an average of 1.3 ºC higher than normal. The minimum anomaly has been the second highest since 1941.
The highest maximum temperature recorded was in Murcia city on May 22nd with 35.4 ºC and the lowest was on March 27th , which did not exceed 4.0 ºC in the Campo de San Juan in Moratalla.
The highest minimum of the quarter was observed in San Javier, with 21.1ºC on May 24th, which was the first tropical night recorded this spring, the highest minimum recorded since May 2006 and the lowest again, in the Campo de san Juan in Moratalla on March 8th when temperatures hit -2.0 ºC.
Rainfall
The very humid character of this last spring was mainly due to the volume of rainfall during March, which exceeded the average value for that month by 687%, the 121 l / m2 making it the wettest March of at least the last 80 years.
April was also very humid, and with 51 l / m2 was double the average for that month.
This heavy rainfall made the two-month period of March-April the rainiest in the last 69 years. The month of May, with only 22 l / m2, was dry.
The wettest area of the region was the Sierra Espuña, the Totana "Mortí" station accumulating 354 l / m2, and the lowest rainfall was in the Campo de Lorca and Northwest municipalities.
The most notable episode of rainfall this last quarter was between March 21st and 24th, in which 43% of the total rainfall during this period was recorded. The Campo de Cartagena accumulated 150 l/m2 during this one episode of rain, much of which flowed down into the Mar Menor and contributed to the problems which are now being experienced.
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