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HEATWAVE

Heatwave in Spain: Why are so many people dying?

At least 360 people have lost their lives in Spain as a result of the extremely high temperatures the country is currently experiencing. But is this heatwave more deadly than others?

Published: 18 July 2022 10:05 CEST
heatwave deaths spain
A nurse sprays water to cool off an old woman at the geriatric hospital. According to Spanish research, 90 percent of those who die from heat exposure are over the age of 74. (Photo by FRED DUFOUR / AFP)

Extreme heat has almost been a constant in Spain since before the summer season even began this year. 

The mercury had already hit 40 C in large swathes of the interior in May, and the country recorded its second ever earliest ola de calor (heatwave) before mid June. 

There have been plenty of very hot weather spells in between, even though for meteorologists to officially consider scorching weather to be a heatwave, the period of extreme heat must last at least three days and temperatures must exceed seasonal thresholds by 10 percent.

Currently Spain is ending an arduous, destructive and deadly nine-day heatwave that’s affected the entire mainland as well as the Balearic and Canary Islands.

One of the most alarming figures is the 360 people in Spain who have died from heat-related consequences during this latest heatwave, with fatalities from over the weekend still not added to the total.

That death toll seems exceptionally high but heat-related deaths are in fact nothing new to the Iberian Peninsula.

Every year, an average of 1,312 people lose their lives in Spain for reasons attributed to high temperatures, according to research conducted by Madrid’s Carlos III University.

Last year, 1,298 heat-related fatalities were recorded during the whole summer of 2021.

This year, the figure certainly looks set to be higher as from the start of May to July 15th 2022, Spain’s heat-related death toll stood at 1,274. 

There are still two weeks left in July, the whole of August and September, which may take the death rate to its highest on record.

The figure of 360 heat-related deaths in just five days (from July 10th to Friday July 15th, 123 on Friday alone) is alarmingly high, and the fact that this heatwave has been longer and more incessantly hot largely explains why so many lives have been lost in so little time. 

“Global warming is causing more intense extreme temperatures, a greater probability of exceeding a heatwave temperature threshold and higher chances that this threshold will be exceeded for a longer period of time,” wrote physicist David Barriopedro of Spain’s National Research Council (CSIC).

In other words, heatwaves in Spain are more frequent, they last longer and they’re hotter.

READ MORE: What is the ‘heat dome’ phenomenon causing Spain’s scorching heatwave?

Unfortunately, Spain’s national weather agency forecasts that temperatures will rise again by this week after some brief respite brought on by stormy weather.

According to Spain’s Daily Death Monitoring report on heat (Monitorización de la Mortalidad Diaria, MoMo for short), 54 percent of yearly fatalities attributed to excessive temperatures happen during the month of August.

The data suggests that 90 percent of those who die from heat exposure in Spain are over the age of 74, but children, infants and those with chronic diseases are also vulnerable. 

Why do people die when exposed to extreme heat?

The human body functions best at 37 C, so when it overheats and becomes dehydrated, this causes the blood to thicken, forcing the heart to pump harder and putting extra pressure on other organs. 

If thermal stress and heat gain becomes too high, the body’s mechanisms such as sweating no longer work and there is no other way to dispose of this additional heat.

This then causes heat exhaustion – which includes symptoms such as dizziness, muscle cramps and nausea – or worse still heat stroke, where delirium and loss of consciousness can be brought on.

READ ALSO: Eleven tips for staying cool during a heatwave in Spain

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WEATHER

Does Spain use cloud seeding?

Some voices online blamed cloud seeding for flash flooding in Dubai recently. Does Spain use this weather modification technique and is it being harnessed as a means of combatting severe drought in the country?

Published: 30 April 2024 11:06 CEST
Does Spain use cloud seeding?

The internet was awash with images of dramatic flooding in the UAE two weeks ago, in which parts of the country saw more rainfall in a single day than it usually does in an entire year on average.

The UEA government stated that it was the most rainfall the country had seen in 75 years and an incredible 10 inches of rain fell in the city of Al Ain.

Predictably, the freak weather event sparked fierce internet debate about the causes and consequences among climate change activists and climate change sceptics. The cause, in particular, struck a chord with certain subsections of the internet and many were asking the same question: did ‘cloud seeding’ cause this biblical downpour?

But what exactly is cloud seeding? Does Spain use it? And with the country’s ongoing drought conditions, should it be using it?

What is cloud seeding?

According to the Desert Research Institute: “Cloud seeding is a weather modification technique that improves a cloud’s ability to produce rain or snow by introducing tiny ice nuclei into certain types of subfreezing clouds. These nuclei provide a base for snowflakes to form. After cloud seeding takes place, the newly formed snowflakes quickly grow and fall from the clouds back to the surface of the Earth, increasing snowpack and streamflow.”

Cloud seeing is used by countries around the world, not only in the Middle East but in China and the U.S, usually in areas suffering drought concerns. The process can be done from the ground, with generators, or from above with planes.

Does Spain use cloud seeding?

Sort of, but on a far smaller scale and not in the same way other countries do. In places like China and the U.S, where large swathes of the country are at risk of drought, cloud seeding is used to help replenish rivers and reservoirs and implemented on an industrial scale.

In Spain, however, the technique has been for a much more specific (and small scale) reason: to avoid hailstorms that can destroy crops.

This has mostly been used in the regions of Madrid and Aragón historically.

But cloud seeding isn’t something new and innovative, despite how futuristic it might seem. In fact, Spain has a pretty long history when it comes to weather manipulation techniques. Between 1979 and 1981, the first attempts to stimulate rainfall took place in Spain, coordinated by the World Meteorological Organisation.

“In 1979, in Valladolid, different techniques were developed to observe the local clouds but they did not meet any possible conditions for cloud seeding experiments. The project came to a standstill,” José Luis Sánchez, professor of Applied Physics at the University of León, told La Vanguardia.

This sort of cloud seeding, as used abroad, doesn’t really happen in Spain anymore. Rather, when it’s used it’s done to protect crops on a local level. Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge are responsible for authorising cloud seeding, but there are only a handful of current authorisations to combat hail, such as the one granted to the Madrid’s Agricultural Chamber combat hail in the south-east of the region.

As of 2024, it is believed that no regions have requested cloud seeding (whether by generator or plane) to ‘produce’ more rain.

So, cloud seeding isn’t currently used like it is in countries such as the U.S., China, and the UAE. But should it, and could it solve the drought issue in Spain?

An aircraft technician inspects a plane’s wing mounted with burn-in silver iodide (dry ice) flare racks. (Photo by Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP)

Spain’s drought conditions

Spain has been suffering drought conditions for several years now. Last year the government announced a multi-billion dollar package to combat the drought conditions, and several regions of Spain have brought in water restrictions to try and maintain dwindling reservoir reserves. 

READ ALSO:

At times in Spain in recent years it has felt as though another temperature or minimum rainfall record is broken every other day. The drought conditions are particularly bad in the southern region of Andalusia and Catalonia, where, despite heavy rain over Easter, reservoirs in the region are at just 18 percent capacity, the lowest level in the country.

So, could cloud seeding be used in Spain to help alleviate some of the drought conditions? Yes and no. Seeding is not the only answer to drought, but could theoretically be used as one option among many.

“It’s just another tool in the box,” Mikel Eytel, a water resources specialist with the Colorado River District, told Yale Environment 360 magazine: “It’s not the panacea that some people think it is.”

This is essentially because cloud seeding does not actually produce more rain, rather it stimulates water vapour already present in clouds to condense and fall faster. For there to be a significant amount of rainfall, the air needs significant levels of moisture.

That is to say, using cloud seeing to try and stimulate more rain may help Spain’s drought conditions in a small way, but the difference would be marginal.

“It’s not as simple and may not be as promising as people would like,” respected cloud physicist Professor William R. Cotton, wrote in The Conversation. 

“Experiments that produce snow or rain require the right type of clouds with sufficient moisture and the right temperature and wind conditions. The percentage increases are small and it is difficult to know when the snow or rain fell naturally and when it was triggered by seeding.”

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