This untimely and unprecedented heat wave is hitting the whole country, with temperatures breaking all records for April everywhere.
It has never been so hot in Seville at the Feria de Abril, the great folk festival that colors the streets of this southern Spanish city every year. Since last Tuesday, thermometers have been showing over 35 degrees Celsius in the shade and for Friday 28/4 the forecast was that the temperature would reach 40 degrees in the Guadalquivir valley.
This untimely and unprecedented heatwave is affecting the rest of the country as well, with temperatures breaking all records for April everywhere.
“After an abnormally warm March, we observe in April temperatures 15 degrees higher than normal,” says the president of the Spanish Society of Climatology Alberto Marti Ethpeleta. “Climate change is accelerating and the Iberian Peninsula is particularly exposed due to its geographical location.”
While more than 400,000 hectares of land have already burned since the start of the year, the Met Office is warning of “extreme fire danger” across much of the country where the three conditions that make fires almost uncontrollable are met: temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, winds with a speed greater than 30 kilometers per hour and humidity less than 30%.
After two and a half years of drought, soil moisture does not exceed 10% in 90% of the territory. “Increasing temperatures dry out vegetation, soil loses its fertility and dry leaves turn into fuel,” says Patricio García-Fayos, director of the Valencia-based Center for Research on Desertification. “By the end of the century, and depending on the evolution of temperatures, the ferocity of fires and land management, a large part of the country will turn into semi-desert and desert zones.”
According to the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, 74% of Spain’s area is at risk of desertification and the risk for 18% is high to very high. Andalusia and Catalonia, in particular, suffer from extensive erosion. Regional governments have already taken measures to limit water consumption, both for watering public gardens and swimming pools and for agriculture.
Faced with historic water scarcity problems, Spain built hundreds of dams, river diversion infrastructure and over 360 desalination plants during the 20th century. In May 2008, the Catalan government was forced to close a deal with France to supply Barcelona with drinking water from Marseille. But that won’t prevent water cuts in the fall in Barcelona if the current drought continues.
The demand of ecologists and some experts to reduce the irrigated agricultural area, which currently reaches 40 million hectares, remains a taboo in this country. Within twenty years, this area increased by 18%. But little by little the decisions taken are in this direction. For the first time, the new river basin management plan envisages a minimum “ecological flow” for the Tagus, which has angered farmers.
On April 19, the Ministry of Agriculture organized a “drought round table” where it invited the main agricultural organizations of the country. “The outlook is not good for May, where the temperatures will resemble July or August,” admits the president of the Union of Young Farmers, Pedro Barato.
Source: Skai
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