The month of March 2023 has been the second warmest and driest March of the 21st century since, except for the first week, temperatures exceeded normal values throughout the period, which gave rise to a average temperature 1.8 degrees Celsius above the weather and it barely rained 36 percent of normal.
This is reflected in the monthly climatological summary of the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) which highlights that the month had a “very hot and very dry” character in the whole of Spain.
The analysis underlines that it was close to 38ºC in the Canary Islands and that except in Galicia, southwest Castilla y León and Extremadura, as well as in the Balearic and Canary Islands, the month was dry or very dry. In fact, this March has been the second warmest and second driest of the 21st century and the third warmest and sixth driest since the historical series began 62 years ago, according to the AEMET spokesman, Rubén del Campo. .
The balance explains that the average temperature in the Peninsula was 11.6ºC, a figure that is 1.8ºC above the normal average value according to the reference period 1991-2020. By areas, in the Peninsula it was very warm in most of mainland Spain; extremely warm in some parts of the Bay of Biscay and in the east, and warm in parts of the western third. In the Balearic Islands it was very warm, while in the Canary Islands it was very warm or extremely warm.
The thirties began with a cold episode, with values lower than normal for the time and even reached -11.5ºC in Molina de Aragón (Guadalajara). However, from the 7th until the end of the month there has been a “long and intense” warm episode as temperatures were clearly above normal.
The last days of the month reached 37.7ºC in southern Tenerife, within a very warm episode that affected the Canary Islands and 33ºC in Murcia. During this March, 12 records of highest daily minimum temperatures for March and 10 daily maximums for that month were broken.Regarding rainfall, the month was very dry since only 21.2 liters per square meter were collected on average, which supposes 36 percent of the normal value of the month, according to the reference period 1991-2020. In almost all of Spain it was between dry and very dry and it was extremely dry in points of Aragon and Catalonia. On the peninsular Atlantic slope, it was between normal and humid, especially in Galicia, southwest of Castilla y León and north of Extremadura. In the Balearic Islands, March was dry or very dry, except in Ibiza, where it was humid. In the Canary Islands the month was between dry and very dry in all its islands.
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Throughout the month it only rained in large areas of the territory during the first ten days. Between March 10 and 20, the rainfall was restricted to the northern and northwestern third and affected the south in a dispersed manner, while the last ten days it only rained in Galicia and in the extreme north of the peninsula and it snowed in the Pyrenees.
The AEMET emphasizes that, after a month of March in which rainfall has been especially lowfollow the drought weather in the whole of Spainboth for the indicators of the last twelve months and for those of the last thirty-six months, which means that the long-term drought that began at the end of December 2022 persists.