As far as Andalusian memory goes, it has never been so hot in Seville during the Feria de Abril, the big popular festival that colors the streets of the southern Spanish city every year. Since Tuesday, April 25, thermometers have exceeded 35°C in the shade and they were expected to reach 40°C on Friday, April 28, in the Guadalquivir Valley, according to forecasts by the Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET).
This early heatwave, unprecedented since weather records exist, spares no part of the country where temperature records for the month of April could be broken everywhere.
"After an unusually warm and dry month of March, we are expecting temperatures 15 degrees above normal for the month of April," explained the president of the Spanish Association of Climatology (AECLIM), Alberto Marti Ezpeleta. "The curves seem to indicate that climate change is accelerating and the Iberian Peninsula is particularly exposed due to its geographic location. Subtropical anticyclones are lingering longer over the southern and Mediterranean regions, resulting in more frequent and intense periods of drought."
Spain is experiencing an unusually early and intense heatwave, causing concern among citizens, politicians, scientists, and farmers alike. With over 40,000 hectares already burned since the beginning of the year, AEMET has issued an alert for "extreme fire risk" over a large part of the territory where the three conditions that make fires almost uncontrollable are widely met: temperatures above 30°C, winds exceeding 30 kilometers per hour, and humidity levels below 30%.
'Large-scale erosion'
In reality, after two and a half years of ongoing drought, the soil moisture level does not exceed 10% over more than 90% of the territory. "Rising temperatures dry out vegetation, deplete soil fertility, and dead plants become highly combustible material. We must prepare to face more and more fires," warned Patricio Garcia-Fayos, director of the Desertification Research Center (CIDE) based in Valencia.
The biologist, who has been working for 40 years on soil erosion, is pessimistic. "The degradation of arid and semi-arid lands, which form a large part of the Spanish territory, has both climatic and human causes. When both combine, erosion accelerates, such as when agriculture is practiced on sloping land, or when overexploitation of groundwater is added to evapotranspiration," he explained. "By the end of the century, sooner or later depending on the evolution of temperatures, the severity of fires, and soil management, a large part will become semi-desert and desert zones."
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