Castellbisbal, the new ‘oven’ of Catalonia in May

  • The Vallesan city, together with Anglès (Selva) recorded this weekend 38.5ºC, an unprecedented temperature in Catalonia in a month of May

  • The 34.4ºC of the Fabra Observatory in Barcelona, ​​marked a new record for May of its 109 years of data, surpassing the 33.4ºC of 2001

The weekend of May 21 and 22, 2022, Catalonia has experienced an unusual heat in a month of May, with fully canicular environment in much of the territory. After more than 10 days of thermal ascent and warm environment for the time, the temperature peaked on Sunday 22, when the counties of Ponent, Catalunya Central and sectors of Vallès, la Selva or Priorat exceeded a maximum of 35ºC. Castellbisbal (Vallès Occidental) and Anglès (Selva) they reached 38.5ºC, a record hitherto unheard of in May in Catalonia. From Wednesday to Sunday, 90 of the 152 stations of the measurement network of the Servei Meterològic de Catalunya (Meteocat) have reached a new maximum temperature record for May.

The Fabra Observatory in Barcelona, ​​located in the Collserola mountain range (411 meters above sea level), recorded the temperature May’s highest of its 109-year series (1914-2022). The 34.4ºC on Sunday clearly exceeded the ceiling of the 33.4ºC that had been experienced on May 31, 2001. In the center of the city, the Barcelona station, located in the Raval, measured a maximum of 33.8ºC, the highest in a month of May of its 16 years of data, exceeding by 3ºC the 30.8ºC of May 24, 2011.

Refering to minimalthe night from Saturday to Sunday the thermometers marked 23.1ºC at the Fabra Observatory, the highest night temperature of the last 100 years in a month of May and with only one precedent in the series: 23.8º C on May 26, 1922.

Hottest Saturday since 1950

In the whole of Spain, the day of last Saturday May 21 was the hottest for that month since 1950after the anomalous and extraordinary episode of heat last week, which affected almost the entire country and which has beaten the high temperatures recorded in May 2015.

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It has been a “episode of unprecedented heat in our country“, assured the spokesman for the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), Rubén del Campo, who stressed that May 20 and 21 have entered the list of the four warmest days of that month since data exists. , pointed out the spokesman, “in both days the highest minimum was registered in the last 72 years”.

Among the maximum records reached on the day of the 21st, the Aemet highlights the 39 degrees in Jaen, the 36.3 degrees in Lleida and 34.5 degrees in Valladolid; at night, the minimum rose to 20.7 degrees in Segovia, in Ávila 18.9 degrees and Salamanca 19.8 degrees, all of them have exceeded the absolute extreme value.

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