The Meteorology Statal Agency (AEMET), dependent on the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challengehas published its climate balance for the month of April 2023. It has been the warmest month of April since the beginning of the series in 1961, having exceeded 0.1°C in the month of April 2011, so far the warmest of the series.
The month of April has been extremely warm as a whole, the average temperatures have been around 14.9°C, a value that is 3.0°C above the average for this month (reference period: 1991-2020).
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Daily maximum temperatures in April were on average 4.7°C above normal value. For their part, the minimums were 1.3°C above the average, resulting in a daily thermal oscillation 3.4°C higher than the normal for the month. In thirty main stations, the average temperature for the month was the highest for an April since records exist.
At forty-five main stations the average of the maximum temperatures was the highest in the April series, and in four the average of the minimum temperatures was also the highest in April since the beginning of the observations.
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Valencian Community
April has also been a month very hot and extremely dry In the Valencian community. The average temperature, 16.2 °C, is 2.8 °C higher than that of the reference climatology (13.4 °C), and the accumulated precipitation has been 3.6 l/m2, which is a 93 % inferior to that of the climatic average for the period 1991-2020 (50.7 l/m2). April 2023 has been the second warmest (only surpassed by April 2014), the driest and the one with the most hours of sunshine since there are records.
During the month, eight days exceeded the historical highs of average daily temperature in the Valencian Community, six of them consecutively between the 25th and 30th. The episode at the end of the month is the warmest recorded in the Valencian Community in a month of April
“There are no precedents for such a dry month of April since at least 1950 in the Valencian Community. It has had half the precipitation of April 1987, which until now is the driest month of April in our territory and contrasts with April last year, which was very humid”, as highlighted by José Ángel Núñez Mora, head of the Territorial Delegation in the Valencian Community of the State Meteorological Agency.
At the Valencia observatory, for example, the precipitation in this month of April is negligible. In a century and a half of records there have only been three months of April with no or negligible rain in Valencia. Specifically in the years 1899, 1927 and 2023.
thermal anomalies
In Spain as a whole, thermal anomalies close to +4 °C were observed in inland areas of Andalusia, eastern Extremadura and southwest of Castilla-La Mancha, reaching values close to +5 °C in some parts of these regions. In the rest of the southern half of the peninsula, as well as in areas of the Cantabrian mountain range, the Ebro valley and southern Castilla y León, the anomalies were around +3°C. In the rest of the peninsula, the anomalies were close to +2°C, except in areas of the eastern Cantabrian Sea and the coasts of Catalonia and the Valencian Communitywhere they took values close to +1 °C.
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In the Balearic Islands, the anomalies took values between 0 °C and +2 °C, while in the Canary Islands they were between +1 °C and +3 °C. Among the main observatories, the 38.8 °C of Córdoba/airport, the 37.4 °C of Morón de la Frontera, and the 36.9 °C of Granada/airport and Seville/airport stand out, all values measured on the 27th. Regarding the minimums, the lowest values were observed in the first days of the month, standing out among the main stations the -8.1 °C of Molina de Aragón registered on the 5th, the -6.9 °C of Burgos/ airport on the 5th, the -5.2 °C of Valladolid/airport also on the 5th, and the -4.6 °C of Puerto de Navacerrada registered on the 13th.
At the main station in Burgos/airport, the minimum on the 5th was the lowest in a month of April since the beginning of the series.
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extremely dry
The month of April was extremely dry in terms of rainfall, with an average rainfall value over mainland Spain of 14.2 mm, a value that represents 22% of the normal value for the month. (reference period: 1991-2020). It has been the driest April since the beginning of the series in 1961.
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April has been between extremely dry and very dry in almost the entire Peninsula, the island of Ibiza and the western Canary Islands. April has been between dry and normal in Galicia, northern Catalonia, parts of Castilla y León, northern Navarra, northeastern Basque Country, coastal areas of Murcia and the eastern Canary Islands, where it has been normal.
During the first decade of the month, rainfall was scarce and affected the northern third of the peninsula, the Balearic archipelago and, to a lesser extent, the Canary Islands. 40 mm were exceeded at points on the Cantabrian coast and the western Pyrenees, as well as on the island of Majorca.
In the second decade, rainfall affected the northern half of the Peninsula, the north of the western Canary Islands and, to a lesser extent, the Balearic archipelago. 10 mm were exceeded in Galicia, along the Cantabrian coast and in the north of the island of Tenerife.
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precipitation
In the western half of the Pyrenees and in areas of A Coruña and Pontevedra, rainfall reached 40 mm. In the third decade of the month, rainfall affected a large part of the Peninsula with the exception of points in Andalusia, southeast of Castilla-La Mancha and inland Valencian Community.
No rainfall was recorded in the archipelagos except on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands and northwest of the island of Majorca in the Balearic Islands. 10 mm were exceeded in the northern third of the peninsula, at points in the Central system, in the western half of Salamanca, north of the province of Cáceres and north of Castellón.
In the western half of Galicia and in areas of the Pyrenees, more than 60 mm accumulated, with some specific areas with more than 100 mm.
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The highest daily rainfall recorded in main observatories corresponded to Santiago de Compostela/airport with 57.8 mm on the 22nd; Hondarribia/Malkarroa with 35.2 mm on the 12th; Vigo/Aeropuerto with 31.8 mm registered and Pontevedra with 26.2 mm, on the 13th. Regarding the total precipitation of the month, among the main stations, the 116.3 mm of Hondarribia/Malkarroa, Santiago de Compostela/ airport with 103.4 mm accumulated and 101.6 mm from Vigo/Airport.
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