Summer. Cartoon of 19/08/2023
Translation of the cartoon: "It has always been hot in summer".
Carlos Castillo, a NASA scientist, warns that Spain will exceed 50 degrees and will suffer increasingly extreme heat waves due to climate change, but we will also receive more and more intense snowfalls as "the amount of water vapour is increasing due to the increase in the evaporation rate of sea water and this can be converted into more intense rainfall, but also, although it may sound paradoxical, into more intense snowfalls".
The temperature of the water is already breaking records , reaching 30ºC, which seriously endangers the marine ecosystem, as well as not allowing temperatures to drop, increasing tropical nights and favouring cold drop episodes, as Jorge Olcina, head of the Climatology Laboratory of the University of Alicante, has already warned, describing this phenomenon as "worrying".
The heat caused the deaths of 4,000 people in Spain last year. According to Greenpeace, the evolution of the Mediterranean temperature will increase 50% above the world average, reaching a minimum increase of 2°C by mid-century.
Today is the fourth heatwave, much less frequent for this time of the solstice, which is outside the heatwave period and will have its greatest impact on Monday and Tuesday.
Although it is not expected to reach record highs, it will probably be one of the longest of the summer as it will last at least until Thursday and only the inhabitants of the south of Galicia, the Cantabrian Sea, the Mediterranean coast and the southeast of Andalusia will be spared.
This new wave will maintain the alert from today in thirteen communities, of which nine will activate the orange warning for maximum temperatures of up to 43 degrees. According to the AEMET, the communities of Andalusia, Aragon, both Castillas, Catalonia, Extremadura, Madrid, Navarre and La Rioja are under an orange warning for extreme heat from midday on Monday.
Minimum temperatures will also be very high during the episode, with tropical nights, above 20º C, and even above 23-25º C, in points of the southern half, central area, Ebro valley and Mediterranean area, with a strong sensation of heat in coastal areas due to high humidity.
Special warning of adverse phenomena number 23/2023 of AEMET (PDF)
Signs. Vignette of 30/04/2023 in CTXT
Some people are still trying to deny or give credence to a bunch of rednecks who deny the existence of all these worrying signs as effects derived from climate change while NASA confirms that July this year was the warmest month in history, at least since records have been kept (1880).
