In Spain too, 2022 was the hottest year on record

Spain experienced in 2022 its warmest year recorded since at least 1916, the year of the first available data, the national meteorological agency (AEMET) announced on Monday.

A trend already observed in Belgium, the United Kingdom and in France.

According to data from Météo France, the summer of 2022 is the second hottest summer after 2003 in France.

"2022 was the hottest year in Spain since at least 1916," the agency said on Twitter, stressing that it was "the first time that the annual average temperature exceeded 15°C."

The agency adds: “Until 2011, it had never reached 14.5 ºC.

Since then, it has happened five times.

Behind 2022, the two hottest years were 2017 and 2020.

The AEMET specifies that it has retrospectively established the average annual temperatures between 1916 and 1961 from isolated measurements and statistical models.

"The third driest year of the series"

Like a part of Europe, Spain was hit in 2022 by several scorching heat waves during the summer.

“For the first time, two consecutive seasons in the same year (summer and autumn) were the hottest in the series”, had underlined the AEMET on December 21 in a provisional report.

The deaths of nearly 4,744 people in Spain are attributable to heat in the summer of 2022, according to excess mortality estimates from a Public Health Institute.

This country has also seen more than 300,000 hectares reduced to ashes by fires in 2022, the worst toll since the start of measures in 2000, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

2022 ha sido el año más cálido en España desde, al menos, 1916, con diferencia respecto a los inmediatos seguidores (2017 y 2020).

Is the 1st time that the annual media temperature exceeds 15 ºC.

Hasta 2011, no se había llegado nunca a 14.5 ºC.

Desde entonces, ha sucedido cinco veces.

pic.twitter.com/RNhQheKQAL

— AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) January 2, 2023

"Taking into account the rains recorded until December 15, this is the third driest year of the historical series", noted the AEMET in its provisional report.

Water reserves were at 43% of their capacity at the end of December, against 53% on average over the last ten years, according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, on which the AEMET depends.

The summer (June to August) 2022, which saw an increase in disasters linked to global warming, was the hottest on record in Europe, the European climate change service Copernicus said on Thursday.

Average temperatures were "the highest, both for the month of August and the entire summer", exceeding for the three months by 0.4 ° C those of 2021, previous record, said Copernicus in a statement. .

They were "about 1.34°C above the 1991-2020 average for the season", adds Copernicus.

For the month of August alone, the temperatures were "by far the highest" recorded, "at 1.72°C above the 1991-2020 average".

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"An intense series of heat waves across Europe, coupled with unusual dry conditions, has led to a summer of extremes, with record high temperatures, droughts and fires," the statement said. Freja Vamborg, scientific manager of the European institute.