The agony and the ecstasy in Alicante
‘Freak’ weather is becoming more normal
SATURDAY was perhaps the strangest April day in meteorological terms of recent times – and a harbinger of how climate change will affect our lives in years to come.
Less than six weeks into the spring season, temperatures were recorded that would be considered extremely hot at the height of summer.
The 36ºC notched up in Torrevieja was fully 4ºC above the previous highest temperature ever recorded in the month of April in the municipality, which was the 32ºC notched up in 1945.
Residents reported that the wind was so hot that it felt like air being blown from a furnace.
Even the beaches, which normally offer the cooling effect of the sea at this time of year, gave little relief to those who sought it.
Then, mercifully – later in the day – storms arrived which are normally associated with the end of summer.
Thunder and lightning accompanied downpours which brought much-needed water for the parched countryside and farmers’ fields.
The precipitation did not reach all areas of the province,
but Bigastro registered 22.6 litres per square metre (l/m2) of rainfall, Jacarilla 17.8 l/m2 and San Fulgencio 10.9 l/m2, according to figures from MeteOrihuela.
The storms also brought a sharp drop in the temperatures, with the following day (Sunday) seeing highs which were between 12 and 14ºC lower than on Saturday in the south of Alicante province.
Downbursts bring down trees
Another phenomenon normally associated with summer which arrived on Saturday was the ‘downburst’ – powerful winds that descend from a thunderstorm and spread out quickly once
they hit the ground.
Alicante university climatology lab had warned early on Saturday that these ‘reventones’ as they are known in Spanish could affect Alicante province that day.
They noted that wind speeds could reach 90km/h in the downbursts ‘in situations which are more habitual in the summer’.
Their forecast proved to be correct and the fire brigade had to intervene when ‘several large pine trees’ were uprooted in the village of Las Virtudes, in the municipality of Villena due to the freak winds, which were also reported in Alcoy.