The heat wave in each province: compare the temperature of each day with the historical average

Data from the last 24 hours, updated on August 1 at 7 a.m.

These are some of the conclusions drawn from the maximum temperature records compiled by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) since 1950 (or from the first year available) and analyzed by elDiario.es. The data for each province corresponds to the meteorological station located in the capital of each of them that has current observations and the oldest historical series or, in its absence, from another station in the province with the same characteristics. See methodology.

This map shows how many degrees above or below the historical average high (between 1981 and 2010) is the highest temperature recorded in the last 24 hours.

Which province registers the maximum temperature farthest from what it would touch for the time? Are there any that reach record levels of heat? The AEMET considers the years between 1980 and 2010 as the reference stage to calculate the “normal temperatures” in each territory. Based on the difference between the average for that period and the current records, you can see if it is hotter than usual.

In the following table, all the provinces are ordered according to the degrees above or below that their highest temperature of the last hours is with respect to that reference average calculated for the current month. In addition, the percentage of days of the same month of previous years that had registered a higher temperature in each province is also shown.

How hot is it today in your province? Compare the temperature with the historical average

Difference, in degrees (ºC), of the maximum temperature of the last 24 hours with respect to the average of the maximum of the month of the period 1981-2010 and the location of the day in the ranking of hottest days of each province

much hotter than normal

To put the daily maximums for this 2022 into context, in the following graph you can see the evolution of the maximum daily temperature in each province but also the value that would be normal for that day of the year and the highest and lowest extremes previously recorded . With the menu you can check the evolution of the maxims in any province.

The maximum temperatures in

Highs recorded daily in 2022compared to the mean of the maximum from 1981 to 2010. In the dark gray stripe are the 90% of maximum temperatures of the historical series recorded that day of the year, and the extremes show the highest maximum temperature Y more low previously reached on the same day of the year

Source: AEMET

How is the summer so far?

The current heat is not just a one day thing. To see if the temperatures this summer are really higher than usual, we compare the maximums recorded this year with the reference period.

Scientist Ed Hawkins popularized the use of weather stripes (“climatic stripes”), some bar code graphs that show the evolution of the average temperature of any place, compare it with the average of each year and show it with a color code.

The following graph uses this idea to show how far away, year by year, the averages of the maximums of the same days that have passed since the beginning of summer until today have been with respect to the average of 1980 to 2010. That is, a reflection of global warming in each Spanish province.

Is 2022 being an especially hot summer in your territory? To see in more detail how the heat of this summer is evolving in each territory, the following table allows you to order the provinces according to the highest temperature they have reached since the beginning of June and the average maximum since then. In addition, the difference in degrees with respect to normal and the previous summers in which higher temperatures had been recorded are shown.

The table also includes heat spikes: the number of days in the current summer in which the maximum has been among the highest reached historically in that period. Finally, you can see the percentage of days so far that have registered highs above the expected.

For this article, historical data on maximum temperatures compiled by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) since 1950 (or since the first year available), extracted from its API and analyzed by elDiario.es, have been used.

The data for each province correspond to the meteorological station located in the capital of each of them that has current observations and the oldest historical series. In its absence, another station in the province with the same characteristics has been used (for example, the data for Palencia correspond to the Autilla del Pino station).

In the cases of Cantabria, Gipuzkoa and Álava, the data from the last 24h does not come from the same station as the historical data used for that province, since there is no station that shares all the data. However, these are stations located a few meters away at the airports in these provinces. The temperatures collected by both do not always coincide, due to the conditions of the environment where they are located, but the variation is of a few tenths and that is why they have been used for comparison.

As a reference indicator for “normal temperature”, the average of the maximums between 1981 and 2010 is used, the time period considered by the AEMET to “define the climatic characteristics of a given area”. As summer, the dates are considered from June 1 to August 31, following the indications of the AEMET.