VALENCIA – The town of Xátiva in Valencia set two weather records on Monday. With a temperature of 33.1 degrees, it was not only the warmest city in Spain for the month of March since 2002, but also the warmest city in all of Europe at that time. But will there be more records to come?
It was also the first time in March that this temperature was reached so early in the month. What is special is that this temperature on March 13 was even the highest measured temperature in all of Europe. According to the Spanish weather service Aemet, it was last this warm on March 20, 2002.
March 13, 2023 broke several weather records in Spain
In the historical data from Valencia Airport, there was only one day in Spain’s history when it got nearly this hot in March; that was on March 25, 1988 with a temperature of 32.6 degrees. The data goes back to 1966 when they started keeping this data.
On Monday, in addition to Xátiva, it was quite warm in many places in the Valencia region; high temperatures were also measured in the cities of Carcaixent – here 32.5 degrees were measured – and at Valencia airport – with a temperature of 31.9 degrees. In several other places the mercury also rose above 30 degrees. Meanwhile, thanks to a cooler breeze in many places, such as in the capital Valencia, it remained around 25 degrees.
What will the weather be like in Spain in the next few days?
On Tuesday, the Aemet predicts a significant drop in high temperatures in the Valencia region and, in fact, all of Spain. It will also remain a bit cooler on Wednesday – between 13 and 18 degrees in the north and centre. And towards the south and along the Spanish coast in the east and south it will be around 20 degrees.
However, despite the heat in Spain, Aemet has issued weather warnings. Code yellow applies to the entire north of Spain due to strong winds along the coast. Code orange applies to the coast of the Basque Country due to strong winds and high waves. In the south and east of Catalonia, code yellow applies due to strong winds and even snowfall in the Pyrenees. Code yellow also applies to Mallorca and the Costa Brava due to strong winds. No warnings have been issued for the time being on Wednesday and Thursday.
On Thursday the weather seems to be getting a bit warmer in Spain with temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees. However, this temperature rise seems short-lived and the Aemet predicts between 15 and 20 degrees for Friday throughout Spain.
