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WEATHER

Provinces across Spain placed on alert for freezing temperatures

Some 30 provinces in 10 different regions across Spain have been put on alert for cold weather this Monday, which could see temperatures go down to -10C.

Provinces across Spain placed on alert for freezing temperatures
A woman with a dog walks in the snow in Navarra. Photo: ANDER GILLENEA / AFP

Spain’s State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) has warned that many provinces across the country could face sub-zero temperatures this week.  

And it’s not just in northern Spain where the mercury is due to dip below freezing, several places in Andalusia are on alert too.  

AEMET has put out alerts in Córdoba, Seville, Granada, Huesca, Zaragoza, Teruel, Ávila, Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid, Zamora, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Toledo, Barcelona, ​​Girona, Lleida, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra, La Rioja and Alicante, which could experience minimum temperatures between -1C and -9C.  

Early Monday morning, it was already below zero in Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and Madrid, and snowfall was been recorded in unexpected places including Mallorca and Alicante. 

Widespread frosts are also expected in the interior of the peninsula, as well as the Pyrenees and other mountain systems in the north.  

The Navarran town of Eugi has had a lot of snowfall over the past few weeks. Photo: ANDER GILLENEA / AFP

As for the coastal areas, high waves have been predicted for Cádiz, Granada, Málaga and Girona provinces as well as the enclave of Ceuta. 

AEMET’s forecast for the last week of January also includes possible rainy conditions in the Balearic Islands and Cantabria. Wind and light rains have also been predicted for the Canary Islands. 

The snow level will be at 800 to 1,000 metres in the Balearic Islands this Monday, with fog and morning mists forming in the central and Iberian mountainous areas.       

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WEATHER

‘Like summer’: Heat records for April already broken across Spain

Spain has had a scorcher of an April so far with heat records broken across the country, summery temperatures in the north, and the mercury up to 16C higher than normal in some parts.

'Like summer': Heat records for April already broken across Spain

We may only be midway through April but Spain has already seen summer-like temperatures in many parts of the country, with record breaking temperatures and heat well above normal values for the time of year.

So far there have been 60 temperature records in April with more than 15 days of the month still to go.

It has been such a warm spring so far that the Spanish press have dubbed it primaverano – a portmanteau of spring (primavera) and summer (verano) in Spanish.

For their part, national weather agency Aemet have described the heat in the Canaries as that of “the middle of summer”. 

Records for both minimum and maximum highs have been broken one after another since the beginning of the month. The record breaking temperatures have been largely in the north, in particular around the Cantabrian Sea, though temperatures have topped 30C in parts of the south.

Temperatures reached 30C at 65 weather stations run by Aemet.

Bilbao, for example, recorded a minimum temperature of 20.1C at its airport, easily beating the previous April record of 17.8C all the way back in April 1949. San Sebastián airport station also beat its previous April record by almost 3C. 

Vigo and Ourense in the northwestern Galicia region and Vitoria in the Basque Country also beat heat records for April with temperatures above 30C.

The Fabra Observatory in Barcelona recorded 29.1C, smashing the previous record (recorded last year in 2023) by 1.6 degrees.

Meteorologist Alfons Puertas posted the record breaking news in a message on Twitter/X, stating: “ATTENTION! A few minutes ago #obsFabra just surpassed the maximum temperature record for April for the entire 1914-2024 series!! 29.1C (provisional) exceeds last year’s record by +1.6C!”

Record temperatures were also recorded in other northern regions such as Asturias and Cantabria.

In the rest of the country, record high minimum temperatures were recorded in provincial capitals including Salamanca, Guadalajara and Teruel.

But the heatwave hasn’t just been felt on the Spanish mainland. On the Canary Islands, April heat records were set in most of the islands, especially in Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Tenerife and La Gomera.

The weather station at Tenerife South Airport recorded a staggering 38.3C April temperature.

Aemet posted on Twitter/X just how abnormal these April temperatures have been: “On Sunday 14th, temperatures were once again very high for the season in most of the country: between 7-15C above normal.”

Aemet also states that the record maximum highs around the country have been “among the 5 percent of the warmest temperatures recorded at this time of year,” adding that the abnormally warm Spring has brought summer temperatures to northern Spain.

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