Northern Spain’s Galcia breaks April heat records

MADRID: Parts of the region of Galicia in northern Spain and the Canary Islands on Friday (April 12) experienced record breaking heat for April as swathes of warm air from Africa upped temperatures, triggering summer warmth that is expected to last through the weekend, Spain’s weather agency AEMET said.

In some parts of northern Spain and the Canary Islands, the temperature was up to 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the normal April temperature, the agency said on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday (April 13).

On Thursday (April 11), Vigo airport surpassed 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time in the month of April and Tenerife South airport surpassed its previous April record by 2.1 degrees Celsius (35.78 degrees Fahrenheit) and registered 38.2 degrees Celsius (100.76 degrees Fahrenheit).

On Friday, records were also broken in the Galician cities of Ourense and Leiro where the mercury hit 33.9 and 34.9 respectively, AEMET reported. Ruben del Campo, a spokesman for AEMET, explained records are being broken more frequently because masses of warm air are stronger and more frequent than they have been in past decades.

The first trimester of 2024 has been the hottest on record in Spain since records began in 1961.