Udoes not feel summer in autumn. After repeated heat waves last summer, Europe is facing exceptionally high temperatures, up to 30°C in the morning in Spain. For specialists, this is a sign of an acceleration of the impact of climate change. “The month is not over, but we can already say without risk that it will be the hottest (in Spain) since 1961”, the start of the statistical series, “and for a hundred years, if we take the reconstructions historical” temperatures, warns Ruben del Campo, spokesperson for the Spanish meteorological agency (Aemet).
“One day, two days above 30°C is normal” in Spain, a country used to very high temperatures, “but as many days, no. These are summer temperatures while autumn is already well underway, ”he insists. Friday morning, it was already 30.3 ° C at 8:30 a.m. at the weather station at San Sebastián airport (north), a city with a usually much cooler climate.
Fires have even broken out in recent days in this region (Basque Country) whose authorities have decreed, as in summer, the ban on barbecues or fireworks in the face of the high risk of forest fires.
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Climate change is ‘accelerating’
For Ruben del Campo, this episode baptized “veroño”, contraction of summer (verano) and fall (otono), is one more sign that climate change has “accelerated” in a “notable way” for ten years in the country, the most exposed in Europe to the risk of desertification. According to a report by the think-tank Climate Central, four Spanish cities (Madrid, Valencia, Zaragoza and Barcelona) are in the top 10 of European cities that have felt the impact of global warming the most over the twelve months ending at the end of September.
An “unpublished” episode in France
In France, the situation is comparable and this month of October should be the hottest on record. “The heat episode in progress since October 15, 2022 is unprecedented in its duration across the country”, noted Météo France in a press release on Thursday. In the south-west of the country, which was affected this summer like Spain by devastating fires, “the maximum will again hound 30 ° C” on Friday.
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In Great Britain, the Met Office, the meteorological agency, underlined for its part on Wednesday that the temperatures, having reached 20.5 ° C in London, were “closer to what we would usually see at the end of August than at the end of October”. The same abnormal mildness in Germany, where the hot winds coming from southwestern Europe bring in their wake “a late summer climate with no hint of winter approaching”, according to the local weather agency. And in Belgium, a maximum temperature of 24°C is announced in Brussels for Saturday, around 10°C higher than the seasonal averages. “Hard to believe that we are at the end of October when large parts of Europe (and North Africa) are experiencing abnormal heat,” the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) tweeted on Friday.
“It clearly worries us”
As a result of this mild weather, the boilers do not need to run at full speed in Northern Europe, which is good news in the midst of the energy crisis. But it is one of the only ones, according to Ruben del Campo. “It can be perceived as a nice weather because it allows you to go to the beach, but in reality, the consequences are not good”, he insists, citing in the first place the level of the water tanks, crucial in a country whose intensive agriculture supplies Europe with fruit and vegetables. They were on Monday at 31.8% of their capacity against 49.3% on average over the past ten years at the same time.
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On the beaches of Barcelona (north-east), locals and tourists enjoying the sun are aware of this. “We are super happy to have this heat, we like it but it’s not normal,” says Alicia Pesquera, 43-year-old beautician. “That clearly worries us. Right now, it should be raining or at least a little cold, ”even in Spain, abounds Fernando Raibas, a tourist from Galicia, a region in the northwest of the country.