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Date Published: 25/01/2024

Unseasonable winter heat brings forward the floracion in Murcia

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Temperatures are currently 10 degrees above where they should be for this time of year, which is wreaking havoc with the plants

Unseasonable winter heat brings forward the floracion in Murcia

The unusually warm weather we have been having this December and January means that fruit and vegetable harvests will be earlier than normal and the flowering of some trees – such as the Floración in Cieza – could be brought forward, according to representatives of the agricultural industry.

Alfonso Gálvez, general secretary of the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers of the Region of Murcia (Asaja), has explained that when the humidity in the soil, it prevents the normal growth of cereals and grasses.

“High temperatures aggravate the effects of drought on all crops,” said Gálvez, who pointed out that this requires farmers to water the crops more, using up valuable water resources and increasing the cost of production.

He also said that in the extra-early fruit trees the current heat has caused their flowering to be very uneven by creating stress due to the great difference in temperature, which also means that double and triple fruits appear.

“We already saw it last year in early fruit, specifically in peaches and nectarines,” he said.

Aside from stone fruits, of which there are many in Murcia, the high temperatures also mean that vegetables and citrus fruits will be subject to more pests and diseases. If this current hot spell is followed by sudden snap frosts in February, as happened last year, “they will do damage”.

“The humidity that the land must accumulate in the vineyards, olive groves and almond trees is lost and affects its vegetative power and the expected production,” said Gálvez. “With the absence of cold, although the minimum temperatures are normal for the season, it contributes to the reactivation of pests and diseases.”

The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has forecast that today, Thursday January 25, several places in the Region of Murcia will have temperatures between 26 and 28ºC, mainly the areas of Vega del Segura and the Guadalentín Valley (including Águilas, Lorca, Murcia, Cieza, among others).

These temperatures are 10 degrees higher than usual for this date of the year, says Luis Bañón, head of the Studies and Developments Unit of the Territorial Delegation in Murcia of Aemet. In the provincial capital, for instance, the maximum temperature that is usually recorded in the hottest hours is 17ºC. To date, there were only two days known to have reached 27ºC – one in 2024 and the other in 2021.

Bañón explains that it is not yet possible to know if the whole winter will be this warm, but the trend that is emerging is that the first couple of weeks of February will still be quite warm.

In other news: Two earthquakes hit the Mediterranean in less than 12 hours

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