Spain has recorded its hottest ever December day, leading to tourists flocking to beaches, ski resorts delaying their season and one region even looking to ship in water to combat a major drought.
With much of Northern Europe shivering in wintery conditions, temperatures climbed to 29.9C (85.5F) in holiday-hotspot Malaga on Tuesday.
Local weather data revealed that Valencia, meanwhile, had highs of 27C (80.6F), while Alicante reached a slightly milder 24C (75.2F).
The heatwave on Spain’s southern coast comes after a summer with four national heatwaves, amidst the hottest year on record.
‘It’s one of the warmest masses of air to have ever overflown Spain at this point in December,’ Ruben del Campo, a spokesperson for the national weather agency AEMET, said.
Couples on Malagueta beach in Malaga were seen their partners’ company in the heat
Tourists swapped ski slopes for beaches during the freak heatwave
Tourists enjoy the weather at Malagueta beach during an unusually warm winter day in Malaga, Spain
The Met Office reported that top holiday destination Malaga reached temperatures of 29.9C (85.8F) yesterday
He added that the unseasonable heat, coupled with predictions of sparse rainfall until the end of February, heralded a ‘not very good’ season for winter sports that depend on abundant snow, which once melted is also a crucial water resource for the spring and summer months.
His colleague in Malaga, Jesus Riesco, said of the temperature in the holiday hotspot: ‘This has beaten the previous record by a long way, and this is unusual.’
The heat, which follows several days of warm air currents across the Iberian peninsula, surpassed the previous December record from 2010, when a temperature of 29.4C (84.(F) was recorded in Grenada, also in the southern Andalusia region.
Such levels would be ‘much less likely’ without ‘the climate changes that have been observed globally and in Spain’, AEMET said.
This graph shows the difference between the recorded maximum and minimum temperatures in Malaga in December 2023 (solid lines), compared to the average temperatures based on historic data between 1981 and 2010 (dotted lines)
The exceptional warmth is likely to end after Wednesday, forecasters said
Despite being accustomed to hot summer months, Spaniards in recent years have seen a growing number of intense heat waves in other seasons, raising alarm among many scientists.
According to AEMET, the frequency of heat waves has tripled in the country over the past 10 years, and the summer weather season has increased by 10 days per decade since the 1980s.
The exceptional warmth is likely to end after Wednesday when AEMET forecasts cooler air from higher latitudes will bring temperatures down to more normal values for December.
Drought conditions in Spain are becoming so bad that one of the biggest regions of the country is considering bringing much-needed water on ships.
Catalonia says it will need to take drastic action and plans to declare a state of emergency in January.
Plans are being made to ship in between 20,000 and 30,000 hectoliters of water by to the metropolitan area of Barcelona, in an attempt to solve the problems associated with the ongoing drought.
Tourists at at Malagueta beach in Malaga were seen enjoying what is likely Spain’s final heatwave of 2023
An elderly couple were seen relaxing on Malagueta beach in Malaga on Tuesday
The searing temperatures enjoyed by these beachgoers at Malvarrosa beach in Malaga come as world leaders have agreed to ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels for the first time at the COP28 climate talks
‘Let’s not assume that the water will come from Tarragona or another place like Marseille,’ said Climate Action advisor, David Mascort.
‘It will depend on where there is availability of water and boats.’
January’s emergency decree will also hit tourism as there will be a temporary suspension of new hotel projects.
The Catalan government says that after 37 months with below-average rainfall, the situation of the reserves is critical.
‘Work is being done on complementary measures to those included in the Special Drought Plan with the aim of guaranteeing water to the citizenship,’ a spokesperson confirmed.
Some of the measures that will be implemented include a ban on commercial projects that ‘requite significant use of water’, including farming and tourism, as well as limits on how much water can be used at public swimming pools.
On top of this, the Catalonian government is deliberating whether to fine tourists for drinking too much water.
Several Catalan town councils have already received fines from the Catalan Water Agency for exceeding water consumption in September.
The town of Caldes de Malavella has received a fine of 24,181 euros for exceeding the maximum consumption of 230 liters per inhabitant per day as 296.26 were consumed.
Caldes de Malavella is a town with 8,200 inhabitants that has two spas, several hotels, seven urbanisations and more than 100 kilometeres of pipes.
One British tourist was seen reading a book during the unusually hot day Malagueta beach, Malaga
Several were seen playing games on at El Palo beach in Malaga
Several were seen taking naps on Malagueta beach in the searing heat
The municipality of Begur, on the Costa Brava, has also received a fine of 54,000 euros for having too much water.
At the popular ski resort of Navacerrada outside Madrid, visitors bemoaned the lack of snow.
‘It’s a terrifying feeling because this should really be covered in snow or frozen over, but instead it’s green and lush for this time of the year,’ Tania, a 32-year-old marine biologist who only gave her first name, told Reuters.
Vicente Solsona, a 66-year-old retired university professor from eastern Castellon province, said that Navacerrada should have at least three feet of snow on such a date.
‘We’re calmly destroying everything,’ he added. ‘The problem is that there’s no going back.’
The searing temperatures come as world leaders have agreed to ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels for the first time at the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, after a ‘historic’ climate change deal was approved by almost 200 countries this morning.
The deal is the first time in nearly three decades of annual UN climate summits that the world has agreed to language that explicitly limits future use of fossil fuels.
The non-binding ‘global stocktake’ deal was negotiated for the last two weeks at the conference in the UAE, with delegates staying up until 5am this morning to get the wording right.
One man was seen watching birds fly by on El Palo beach in Malaga
People in Valencia enjoyed temperatures of 25C (77F)
A couple enjoy El Palo beach in Malaga during the heatwave
Over 21 pages and nearly 200 paragraphs, the deal sets out a path away from the use of fossil fuels in order to ‘achieve net zero by 2050’.
Signatories have pledged to ‘contribute… to transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner’.
It calls for a tripling of renewable energy capacity globally by 2030, speeding up efforts to reduce coal use, and accelerating technologies such as carbon capture and storage that can clean up hard-to-carbonise industries.
On top of this, there is a recognition that global emissions will likely peak before 2025, and that developing nations may have their peak slightly later.
The deal also ‘reiterates’ that developed nations support more vulnerable states facing the potential consequences of climate change, such as rising sea levels.
