According to Amet, the Spanish weather service, average temperatures in the Iberian Peninsula were 3 degrees above the 1991 to 2020 climate average. It was especially hot towards the end of the month. The temperature has already crossed 35 degrees in many places. On April 27, Córdoba, Spain recorded 38.8 degrees, a record for April.
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Not only was it very hot in Spain and Portugal, April was also characterized by drought. According to Aemet, the 14.2 millimeters of rain fell was only 22 percent of the normal value for the month. It was the driest April since measurements began in 1961.
Parts of Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Japan and northern North America were also warmer than normal. Alaska, Mongolia, the Arabian Peninsula, India and Australia were colder than average. So was the United Kingdom and much of Southeast Europe.
The average temperature this year will be warm. The chances of an El Nino weather event are increasing. Above-average temperatures were recorded across the eastern Pacific in April. “This is an early signal for El Niño conditions, which will often lead to higher temperatures around the world,” says Samantha Burgess of Copernicus.
El Niño is associated with normal sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. This phenomenon greatly affects weather patterns and conditions around the world. In South America and the Horn of Africa, El Niño causes heavy rainfall. Australia, Indonesia and parts of South Asia are facing severe drought. In our region, the impact of the weather phenomenon is not so great.
The United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned last week that this year we will experience an El Nino, possibly accompanied by new heat records. The WMO estimates the chance of experiencing El Nino at the end of July at 60 percent and at the end of September at 80 percent.
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