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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘2.7C above normal’: Spain registers hottest month on record

July certainly felt like a scorcher, but it was revealed that it was in fact the hottest month in Spain since records began in 1961.

Published: 9 August 2022 10:59 CEST
heatwave in Spain
July 2022 was hottest on record in Spain. Photo: THOMAS COEX / AFP

The average temperature during July was 26.6C, which is 2.7C above normal, revealed Spain’s state meteorological agency AEMET on Monday.

The July heatwave caused scorching temperatures across most of the country, including the Balearic and the Canary Islands.

The high temperatures were caused when an Atlantic anticyclone displaced a very warm African air mass over the Iberian Peninsula, explained AEMET spokesman Ruben del Campo.

The wave that affected the peninsula and the Balearic Islands between July 9th and 26th was “the most significant since records began” said AEMET, adding that it was also the “most intense and the most extensive, as well as the second longest”.

Spain suffered its longest heatwave in 2015, which lasted 26 days, however, the average temperature for the whole country was 0.2°C below this year’s average. Up until now, July 2015 was the hottest in Spain since records began 61 years ago.

This July also “far surpassed” the heatwave of August last year, with temperatures 4.8°C above the hottest month in 2021.

READ ALSO: Spanish climate deniers use past heat records to sow doubt online

Which parts of Spain experienced the greatest rise in temperatures?

Not all parts of the country were affected equally in July. The mercury was 5C above normal in Galicia, southern and central Castilla y León, Madrid, Extremadura, and western Castilla La-Mancha, as well as the interior of Andalusia and the Pyrenees.

The daily maximum temperatures were on average 3.3C above normal, while the minimum temperatures were 2.2C higher than normal, “resulting in a daily thermal oscillation of 1.1 C, which is higher than average for July”, explained AEMET.

The Carlos III Health Institute estimated that, between July 1st and 29th, there were 9,687 more deaths than expected for that period, of which 2,124 were attributed to the sweltering hot weather.

One of the driest months on record 

Not only did July 2022 see roasting conditions, but it was also the driest month in the last 15 years. During this time there was an average rainfall over mainland Spain of 8.6mm. It was also the driest month of the entire 21st century, behind the months of July in 2005 and 2007.

The areas most affected by the lack of rain were Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country and Castilla y León, Extremadura, Soria and eastern Catalonia, many of which usually experience the greatest amount of rain in the country.

In the Canary Islands, however, it was the third wettest July of the 21st century.

READ ALSO – Drought: Where in Spain are there limits on water usage?

Heatwaves across Europe

But it wasn’t only Spain that experienced intense heatwaves. July 2022 was also the sixth hottest in Europe since records began according to Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme.

Last month was also one of the three hottest Julys globally on record, registering 0.4C above the reference period from 1991 to 2020. Only July 2019 and 2016 exceeded this year’s temperature.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Mutant cockroaches’: Why Spain’s rising temperatures make them multiply

Experts in Spain are warning that rising temperatures are causing genetic mutations in cockroach populations that lengthen their breeding seasons and make them more resistant to traditional pesticides.

Published: 16 April 2024 11:04 CEST
'Mutant cockroaches': Why Spain's rising temperatures make them multiply

They’re a part of Spanish summers that everyone dreads. No, not the blistering heat or beaches and beauty spots teeming with tourists, but the cockroaches coming out of hibernation.

If you haven’t lived in a warm climate before, this can come as a bit of a shock. This is especially true if you come across some of the huge, brown cockroaches scurrying across the street or, even worse, in your house.

But now climate and pest control experts warn that climate change could make the problem even worse by causing a genetic mutation and creating what the Spanish press have dubbed ‘mutant cockroaches’ (cucarachas mutantes) that are growing immune to traditional pesticides.

READ ALSO: What to do about insects and other pests in your home in Spain?

The mutation, experts fear, combined with longer breeding seasons and increased birth rates, could pose a public health risk.

Rising temperatures are causing the ‘blond’ or Germanic cockroach (blattella germanica) to genetically mutate.

“Their metabolic cycle is accelerated” by the heat and they are increasingly immune to insecticides, Jorge Galván, director general of the National Association of Environmental Health Companies (Anecpla), told Spanish news outlet 20minutos.

Climate change has changed Spain from “subtropical to a tropical climate,” Galván says.

“The warm seasons are getting longer and the cold ones are getting hotter.” This in turn means that cockroaches appear “a couple of months earlier” and stay out later into the year than they previously would.

This means a longer breeding season, and therefore a larger number of cockroaches.

The effects of these high temperatures combined with longer breeding seasons substantially increases “the probability of a genetic alteration.” Already, pest control experts have seen that cockroaches are becoming immune to traditional pesticides and can ingest chemicals previously used to kill them, something that will, Galván fears, contribute to problems not only of pest control “but of public health.”

READ ALSO: What venomous species are there in Spain?

Carlos Pradera, technical manager of the pest control company Anticimex, explained that “the more we treat them, the more they withstand the pressure.”

For this reason, Pradera says, experts are investigating other “preventive measures” to try and combat the genetic changes, looking at other “other methodologies based on traps and vacuums.”

Cockroaches are becoming increasingly common in homes and bars and restaurants in Spain, experts warn. Anticimex carried out almost 40 percent more pest control incidents in 2023 than the previous year, a record, according to data provided to EL PERIÓDICO.

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