He The 4th of October, The State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) station in Frontera in El Hierro measured the second highest October temperature in Spain since records began. Were 40.6°C, surpassed only by 43.2°C recorded in Puerto Pajara (Fuerteventura) in 2017. But such heat is not unique to the Canary Islands. The peninsula also reaches temperatures that are the only autumnal feature of this autumn according to its name.
All this happens after a suffocating summer. Third most popular because the records exist. Clearly, climate change has a lot to do with the high temperatures in October. But even in this case, there must be more specific culprits.
According to AEMET, the explanation this not very autumn heat one has it anticyclonic ridge at the middle levels of the troposphere, united with a surface anticyclone. What does all this mean if we translate it from meteorologist to Spanish? And, more importantly, how long will it last?
Key Ideas
The anticyclonic ridge is a vast area high pressure, which looks like a ridge on weather maps. It’s the complete opposite depressionwith a valley shape and low pressure.
For anticyclones In general, these are regions with higher atmospheric pressure than the surrounding air, where in the northern hemisphere the air rotates clockwise. All this leads to the fact that, unlike a cyclone, weaker currents descend to the surface. The result is air understanding, for example, when we press the plunger of a syringe. When a gas is compressed, it heats up, and when its pressure decreases, it cools. Therefore, the first consequence of all this is an increase in temperature.
On the other hand, this piston downward prevents the moist layers of the earth’s surface from rising to higher layers, condensing and forming clouds. There is no rain, but in addition, since the sky is clear, the Sun falls even more strongly on the surface, making it more heat.
This October, Europe is surrounded by a huge anticyclone, which leaves very high temperatures. in Spain, but also in other countries such as Portugal, France, Italy, Austria or the Czech Republic. Perhaps at the end of this week the heat will begin to slowly leave us, with the arrival of a trough on Friday, October 13th. But perhaps we are still missing that ordinary autumn that stole our time. changing of the climate.
Climate change stealing our October fall
Autumn began in September. October should already be marked by a drop in temperature and light rain, but we have not seen either of those yet.
At the moment everything has meteorological explanation. But does this have anything to do with climate change? The truth is, yes.
According to meteorologists, rising global temperatures favor that anticyclones persist longer after summer. They need to be pushed to get them to back down. stormsbut for their formation cold air massIt’s getting harder to get to.
Therefore, although there may be exceptional episodes heat in autumnThis very warm October persisting over time has a lot to do with climate change.
Breaking heat records
Despite everything, the summer of 2023 was not the hottest in Spain. In fact, new research shows that this record holds until the summer of 2022, when the highest temperatures in years were reached. 700 years. Despite this, 2023 is very close and has also broken many records with endless heat waves and stifling temperatures. Now autumn is not giving us the respite we expected; mosquitoes continue to visit us as if it were July. heat remains almost the same, only occasionally the temperature drops. at night.
Perhaps the fall of 2023 will reach the records of the summer of 2022. And these are not records to be proud of. These are records that should worry us about the world we leave for the little ones and those yet to arrive. This is worth thinking about, no matter how pleasant it may seem to swim at the beach in mid-October.
Source: Hiper Textual
