Morocco is recording heat records this winter, with the hottest month of January recorded in the kingdom since 1940, the General Directorate of Meteorology (DGM) told AFP on Wednesday, attributing the phenomenon to global warming.
The country, where temperatures recently approached 37°C in places, is facing its sixth consecutive year of drought which risks having a serious impact on agriculture, a key sector of the economy representing around 14% of exports.
In January, the average temperature broke a record, “exceeding the normals for the period 1991-2020 by +3.8°C,” declared Houcine Youaabed, head of communications at the DGM.
It is “the hottest month of January since the first measurements in 1940,” he told AFP.
Previous national records were set at +2.9°C in January 2016, compared to seasonal norms, and at +1.5°C in January 2010.
In February, several regions noted an increase of more than 10°C compared to the usual monthly averages, according to the DGM.
Monthly records were broken, such as in the coastal town of Safi (west), which recorded 35.6°C on February 14 (compared to 34.7°C in February 1960).
“These recent events in Morocco are part of a global trend” and “reflect the consequences of global warming, including an intensification of meteorological phenomena,” noted Mr. Youaabed.
According to the European Copernicus network, over the period from February 11 to 20, 21.6% of Europe and the northern Maghreb is in a drought situation, with 17.3% of soils experiencing a moisture deficit (category “warning”) and 2.5% where vegetation develops abnormally (“alert”, an even more advanced state of drought), according to calculations carried out by AFP.
Rain is expected to return to Morocco in the coming days but only large-scale precipitation will be able to offset the deficits and benefit the agricultural sector, which employs around a third of the working-age population.
