The “extreme heat” recorded at the end of April in the Iberian Peninsula and in part of North Africa “would have been almost impossible without climate change”, shows a scientific study published on Friday, May 5.
This “exceptionally early heat wave” led to “temperatures sometimes exceeding seasonal norms by 20 degrees and breaking records for the month of April by more than 6 degrees”, underlines this report from the World Weather Attribution (WWA), global network of scientists assessing the link between extreme weather events and climate change.
A hot, dry air mass from North Africa last week brought all-time April temperature records to Portugal and mainland Spain with 36.9 and 38.8 degrees respectively. Or levels worthy of the month of July.
In Morocco, local records were broken and temperatures exceeded 41 degrees in places while in Algeria they crossed the 40 mark. of this record heat wave in Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Algeria” compared to the pre-industrial climatic context and it “would have been almost impossible without climate change”, indicates this WWA report.
More frequent and intense heat waves
This heat wave was “so extreme” that it remains a “rare episode in the current climatic context”, even in a region of the world already used to a multiplication of these phenomena “in recent years”, continues the WWA. According to this group of researchers, the temperatures recorded last week in this area were “3.5 degrees higher than they should have been without climate change”.
“We are going to see more and more frequent and more intense heat waves in the future” in this part of the world, warned Sjoukje Philip, a researcher at the Royal Meteorological Institute of the Netherlands and member of the WWA. , during a presentation of the report to the press.
These abnormally high temperatures come “after several years of historic drought, which exacerbates the impact of heat on agriculture, already threatened by growing water shortages”, notes the WWA.
The Mediterranean, one of the regions most exposed to climate change in Europe
In Spain, a country whose agricultural regions are nicknamed the “vegetable garden of Europe”, the main farmers’ union, Coag, estimates that 60% of agricultural land is currently “asphyxiated” by the lack of rainfall. The country’s reservoirs – where rainwater is stored so that it can be used during the drier months – are currently at less than 50% of their capacity, even a quarter in certain territories, such as Catalonia (northeast ) where the situation is extremely worrying.
A lack of water has prompted many farmers to give up spring sowing, especially of cereals and oilseeds. “The Mediterranean is one of the regions most exposed to climate change in Europe. While the region is already facing a long and very intense drought, these high temperatures at a time when it should rain worsen the situation”, highlights guard Friederike Otto, of Imperial College London, one of the lead authors of the study.
In this context of increasing heat waves in Spain – which had its hottest year last year – the government has defended the national meteorological agency Aemet, targeted by a flood of insults and threats, against a background of climatic “conspiracy”. “Assassins”, “criminals”, “we are watching you”, and “you will pay for it”: the Aemet claims to have received a number of messages in recent weeks criticizing these forecasts and these analyses linking episodes of abnormal heat to climate change. Attacks denounced by the Minister of Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera. “Lying, fueling conspiracy and fear, insulting… This impoverishes our society”, she denounced Friday on her Twitter account,
