Temperatures around the world are continually rising as the effects of climate change advance. Last year 2017 in Spain was one of the warmest in history. Exactly It was the second hottest in history, the first being the year 1965.
Do you want to know the data about this year 2017?
Summary of the year 2017
The annual average temperatures this year have been the highest since 1965 with values of 16,2 degrees centigrade. Furthermore, it has been a very dry year with only 474 liters per square meter of rainfall. These values are 27% lower than the normal mean.
According to the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), temperatures in 2017 have increased the average by 1,1 degrees the average annual value of the reference period 1981-2010 and by 0,2 degrees the previous highest, registered in the years 2011, 2014 and 2015.
Although the year began with a very cold January due to the cold waves that took place, February was very warm and spring was the same. Average spring temperatures they were 1,7 degrees higher than normal. In addition, the summer was also very warm, exceeding the averages by 1,6 degrees.
During the fall temperatures are expected to drop and rainfall to increase. But this was not so. Temperatures have remained at 0,8 degrees above the average for this season and rainfall values very low, aggravating the effects of the drought that causes numerous damages.
December has been quite cold in character, reaching 0,4 degrees below the mean, but it has been caused by the fronts and cold waves that have taken place.
Waves of heat and cold
During the summer there have been frequent episodes in which the temperature has been much higher than normal, both on the peninsula and in the archipelagos. Three major heat waves have occurred. The first was registered between June 13 and 21 and mainly affected the west, center and northeast of the peninsula; the second took place between July 12 and 16, with the highest summer temperatures -up to 46,9 degrees in Córdoba or 45,4 in Badajoz- and which mainly affected the south and center of the peninsula, and the third between 2 and 6 August, which mainly affected the south and east of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands.
On the other hand, 2017 has also had cold waves that have lowered temperatures. The cold wave that took place between January 18 and 20 affected the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands due to a continental air mass that caused the lowest temperatures of the year (-13,8 degrees in the Port of Navacerrada or -13,4 in Molina de Aragón).
Precipitation
The year 2017 joins another year of hydrological deficit that they build the most serious drought Spain has faced since 1995. In both autumn and spring, the rainfall values have been so low that this year is the second driest in the entire historical series, the first being 2005. Only the normal values of rainfall have been exceeded and in a way that light in an area that covers the north of the Basque Country and a large part of Navarra, as well as Mallorca and parts of Alicante.
By contrast, were 25% lower to these values in a large part of the southern half of the peninsula, extensive areas of Castilla y León, Catalonia, southern half of Aragon, northern half of the Valencian Community, areas west and east of Galicia, Castilla-La Mancha, Madrid, the Canary Islands and Ibiza.
This year joins the warmest and driest affected by the growing effects of global warming, being the third warmest on record since the industrial revolution and greenhouse gas emissions began.