The month of April 2023 has been extremely hot and dry, in fact, it has been the hottest April with the least rain in Spain since records began, as reported by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET).
The monthly report from AEMET reflects that the average temperature in the country as a whole was 14.9 degrees Celsius (ºC), which represents 3 degrees more than normal and that barely 22% of normal rainfall was collected.
Thus, it has been the warmest month of April since records began in 1961, that is, in 62 years. Specifically, the maximums were on average 4.7ºC above normal while the average of the minimums weres 1.3ºC above the average, so that the daily thermal oscillation was 3.4ºC higher thanthe usual average of the month.
The largest thermal anomalies were observed in inland areas of Andalusia, eastern Extremadura and southwest of Castilla-La Mancha, where these anomalies are around 4ºC and even in some points up to 5ºC compared to normal figures.
In the Balearic Islands, the thermal anomalies took values between 0 °C and +2 °C, while in the Canary Islands, they were between +1 °C and +3 °C.
In addition, the AEMET highlights that on April 27 at Córdoba airport, records of 38.8ºC were reached at Córdoba-airport; in Morón de la Frontera, 37.4ºC and in the airports of Granada and Seville it reached 36.9ºC.
80% less rainfall than it is normal for the month of April
Regarding rainfall, the weather balance concludes that the month of April was extremely dry, since barely 14.2 liters per square meter were collected in the country as a whole, which represents barely 22% of the normal for April. With these figures, April 2023 has been the driest since the beginning of the series in 1961.
April has been between extremely dry and very dry in almost the entire Peninsula, the island of Ibiza and the western Canary Islands; it was between dry and normal in Galicia, northern Catalonia, parts of Castilla y León, northern Navarra, northeastern Basque Country, coastal areas of Murcia, while the eastern Canary Islands received a normal amount of rainfall.
The first ten days of April there was hardly any rainfall, which only affected the northern third of the peninsula, the Balearic archipelago and, to a lesser extent, the Canary Islands archipelago.
During the second decade, the rainfall affected the northern half of the Peninsula, the north of the western Canary Islands and, to a lesser extent, the Balearic archipelago.
Meanwhile, during the last ten days of April, it rained in a large part of the Peninsula except in points of Andalusia, southeast of Castilla-La Mancha and the interior of the Valencian Community. The Canary Islands did not receive any rain, with the exception of the island of La Palma, while in the Balearic Islands, it only rained in the northwest of Mallorca.