ARCHIVED - Spain braces itself for a weather phenomenon that has not been seen for 20 years
This is the first winter that Spain will experience a triple episode of La Niña this century
The year is almost at an end and what a strange one it’s been in Spain. Quite aside from historical inflation and the ongoing coronavirus saga, meteorologically speaking 2022 has been the most unusual 12 months we’ve seen so far this century.
Spain this year experienced the hottest summer in six decades – it was the warmest in 40 years in Europe in general – and autumn was much the same, since October too broke all historical records.
And the country looks set for another strange phenomenon, the likes of which haven’t been experienced in 20 years: the first triple episode of La Niña this century.
La Niña is a climate pattern that results in the cooling of surface ocean water in the central and eastern Pacific and tends to disrupt westerly winds, creating extreme episodes of high pressure over Europe. Usually lasting between 9 months and 3 years, it is most often associated with strong storms, devastating floods and harsh temperatures in winter, but it can also result in hotter and drier summers in Spain, leading to drought.
Now, according to forecasts from the National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there is a 75% chance that La Niña will continue throughout the winter, stretching as far as February 2023.
This means that Spain is facing the first triple episode of the phenomenon of the 21st century, something that has only been observed three times since 1950.
On the other hand, the experts believe there is less than a 40% chance of La Niña persisting beyond the winter, leading them to predict a ‘neutral’ phase to follow. This would most likely lead to a wetter spring in Galicia, Cantabria and central and western Spain, with drier weather in the east and the Balearic Islands.
Before this though, NOAA forecasts that Spain is in for a particularly chilly winter, with the possibility of DANAs in the Mediterranean and trying weather in the Region of Murcia, the Valencian Community and the Balearics.
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Image: ClimateReanalyzer.org
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