The year 2022 was the hottest in mainland Portugal since 1931, with six heat waves recorded, according to the annual bulletin of the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA).
THE the average air temperature was 1.38 degrees Celsius (°C) above the normal value registered in the reference period 1971-2000, refers to the balance of the Climate and Climate Change division of IPMA for the last year.
The country registered six heat waves, one in May, four in summer and one in autumn, and the average maximum air temperature was 22.32°C, 1.82°C more than the normal value, according to the report from meteorological services, which adds that the “last 14 years have always recorded positive anomalies“.
The average minimum air temperature, 10.96°C, was 0.94°C above normal and the fourth highest in the past 91 years.
Qualified as “extremely hot in relation to air temperature and dry in relation to precipitation”, 2022 was the year in which 80% of the territory of Continental Portugal was considered “in extreme severe drought“.
Total annual precipitation was 797.6 mm, 84 mm below the normal value, with 70% of the rainfall occurring in the last four months of 2022.
“Five episodes of intense and persistent rainfall” were recorded, one in September and four in December, which “resulted in flooding in several regions” of the country.
The IPMA balance specifies that the passage of the extratropical cyclone Danielle through Portugal resulted in an average precipitation value of 55.2 mm between September 12 and 15, which corresponded to “77% of the total value of the month”.
Regarding the extreme values of air temperature, precipitation and wind in continental Portugal, the bulletin reveals that the lowest minimum temperature, -7.5°C, was recorded in Mirandela (Bragança district) on January 30, 2022 and that the highest maximum temperature, 47°C, was recorded on July 14, in Pinhão, in the Douro region.
The highest amount of precipitation in 24 hours, 110.6 mm, was recorded on December 13, 2022 at the IPMA Lisboa/GC station, while the strongest gust of wind, of 119.5 kilometers per hour, occurred on December 11. December in Fóia, at the highest point in the Algarve, in the Monchique mountains.
2022 was the fifth hottest year in the world since record, according to global climate data compiled by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Monitoring Service and released Tuesday.
This service, which collects global data since 1959, indicated that last year was the fifth hottest in the world, after 2016, 2020, 2019 and 2017 the average temperature was 0.3ºC above the reference period of 1991-2020, equivalent to approximately 1.2°C higher than that of the period 1850-1900.
He also mentioned that along with the summers, the winters are getting warmer in Europe, and with greater intensity, as a consequence of the global increase in temperatures.
“With rising global temperatures, heat waves and hot spells become more frequent and more intenseand this is not just limited to the summer months,” Freja Vamborg, a scientist at the Copernicus Climate Change Monitoring Service, told the AFP news agency, noting that “the winters are warming as a result of the global temperature increase.
According to Vamborg, “warming is more pronounced in winter” in northern Europe and “more evident in summer” in the south of the continent.
Source: Observadora
