Spain recorded the hottest month of January

Temperature records also began to fall in 2024. Spain recorded its warmest January since records began in 1961, with average temperatures last month reaching 8.4 degrees Celsius, 0.4 degrees Celsius above the previous record, established in 2016, announced the Ministry of the Environment of this country. The temperature in mainland Spain also exceeded the 1991-2020 average for that month by 2.4 degrees Celsius. The unseasonably warm mid-winter weather has drawn people to beaches and outdoor cafes across Spain. The Ministry of the Environment specified that the weather was "extremely warm" in the south and center of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in the subtropical Canary Islands. The weather was "very warm" in the north and in the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, and "normal" for this period only in some regions in the northeast of the Ebro Valley. In December, temperatures in Spain have already broken records as a mass of warm air descended on the country, with the mercury on the verge of reaching 30 degrees Celsius in the south and delaying the start of the ski season. The dry and sunny weather also exacerbated a prolonged drought in the regions of Catalonia and Andalusia. Scientists have linked the scorching temperatures and dry and windy weather that has affected several regions of the world, including southern Europe, to climate change. Last year was the hottest ever recorded on the planet and possibly the warmest in 100,000 years, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.