August 2024 has become the hottest of the historical series in the Spanish peninsula, with an average temperature of 25 ºC, according to the National Meteorological Agency (Aemet) in its account. xWith this figure, the months of 2003 and 2023 are two-tenths higher than the months of 2003 and 2023, which were the warmest since these data began to be studied in 1961.
Aemet spokesperson, Luis BunonEL ESPAÑOL acknowledges that they collect the balances of all the seasons and that in many of them, August appears as the hottest month. Even so, with only two tenths of difference, it may not be the first in the historical series. “These are still provisional data, although no one knows that it is very hot.”
The origin of this record is not in August, but rather began the previous month. More precisely, Aemet designates July 22 as the starting point, the hottest day in the world since 1940In the case of Spain, the country was entering the second heat wave of the summer.
🌡️📈August 2024 was the hottest in the historical series in the Spanish peninsula.
With an average temperature of 25 ºC, it was 2 ºC above the 1991-2020 average. It exceeded by two tenths those of August 2003 and 2023, the warmest so far.
(1/3) pic.twitter.com/v7zJAJKsEd– AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) September 2, 2024
Although it ended before the beginning of August, this month began with a new heatwave, with more than 1,500 high-risk municipalities. The first day, in fact, was already “very hot”: in the southern third, the 44 ºC was locally exceeded. In the following days, a mass of hot air settled on the peninsular territory.
Aemet activated a new special heatwave alert on August 9, which marked about two and a half weeks of temperatures above normal for the time throughout mainland Spain. The second weekend of the month the hottest days of this summer have been experienced: in 65 Aemet stations, temperatures reached 40 ºC.
Wet August
Another special warning was activated in the middle of the month. Although in this case it was not due to heat, but rather to precipitation and storms, since it formed around the Mediterranean area. a DANA that left heavy rains in a large part of the eastern peninsula. “In August, the rainfall was generous,” summarizes Buñón, who reveals that the average throughout Spain was 24.3 liters per square meter. “It is a humid character,” and that represents 114% more rain than expected in August.
After DANA, another heat episode occurred, with “very persistent warm air masses”, which made August 2024 one of the hottest in the historical series. It is not the month with the highest average temperature, since this position is occupied by July 2022, with an average temperature of 26.6 ºC.
The record it broke this month was that of the average nighttime minimum, with 17.4 ºC. At the maximum, with 32.5 ºC, the second highest figure was recorded, surpassed only in 2023. As Buñón warns, in recent years there have been “a significant change in rising temperatures“which is demonstrated “month after month”, and which is due to “unnatural reasons”.
The data confirm the perception of a very hot summer, as well as the forecasts published before the start of the season. Buñón, however, downplays the importance of those that have been made in recent years, since compares to the 1991-2020 averagea period that had “natural variability” that does not coincide with the current one.
The hottest year
In fact, of all the Augusts that have been rated “very hot” since records began, half of them have occurred in the last six years.We already miss the message that this month was very hot“, laments Buñón, “it would be news if it were not normal.”
The data published by Aemet also reveals that, until August 31, 2024, it is positioned as the hottest year in the historical seriestied with 2022. Both have an average temperature of 15.8 ºC; a value very close to the 15.7 ºC recorded in 2020 and last year.
If so, the record would not only be due to the values that take place this summer, but it would also be necessary to emphasize the first months of 2024which has accumulated uncertainty from the extreme temperatures recorded last year. Globally, the The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has already warned that there is a “very high” probability that this year will be the hottest on record.
