The Spanish capital is the third European city, behind Valletta and Longyearbyen, which has seen its mercury vary the most due to this phenomenon
Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza are among the ten European cities where the most influential climate change in their temperatures over the last year, according to the report ‘365 days on a warming planet’ prepared by Climate Central. The study reveals the influence of man-made climate change on daily average temperatures for each of the days between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022 around the world, including more than 1,000 cities.
This degree of influence of climate change on daily temperatures around the world can now be measured in real time thanks to a new online tool published by Climate Central. It is a new five-point metric called the Climate Shift Index (CSI-), which establishes the extent to which climate change has influenced the average daily temperatures in a specific region. A CSI level of 3 means that the day’s temperature became at least 3 times more likely than it would have been without the influence of man-made climate change. The maximum CSI level is 5.
With this information, Climate Central has also published the classification of the most affected cities on each continent during the last year. According to the report, Madrid it was the third European city, only behind Valletta (Malta) and Longyearbyen (Norway), which recorded a greater number of days with a CSI level equal to or greater than 3, with 66 days. Following the capital of Spain were Valencia (59 days), Zaragoza (58) and Barcelona (53).
In addition, the study takes into account the level of human exposure, by multiplying the population of each city by the total number of days with CSI levels of 3 or higher in that place. Following this scale, Madrid was the European city with the greatest focus of human exposure, while BarcelonaValencia and Zaragoza occupied the fourth, seventh and eighth position, respectively. In fact, Madrid was the only European city among the 121 cities in the world with the highest level of human exposure in the period analyzed.
The ‘365 days on a warming planet’ report has also highlighted that in the last twelve months, man-made climate change affected the temperatures experienced by 7.6 billion people — 96% of the world’s population — . People living near the equator and on small islands were especially affected. Mexico, Brazil, West and East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Malay Archipelago experienced the greatest influence of man-made climate change on temperatures during the 365 days analysed.