The Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat) has found that in the last 30 years Catalonia has become warmer and drier, and that there has been an average increase of 1 degree Celsius compared to the period 1961-90.
At a press conference this Thursday, the director of the Meteocat Service, Sarai Sarroca, and the professor of Geography at the UB, Javier Martín-Vide, presented 'The Climate Atlas of Catalonia 1991-2020. Average thermopluviometry', which reflects the changes compared to the previous thirty years.
Sarroca stated that Catalonia "today is warmer and more arid than in the last 30 years, with an increase of 1 degree," and added that the map they present homogenizes the data at a scale of 100 meters by 100 meters, and is available online .
Martín-Vide has said that the increase in temperature has manifested itself above all in the warm urban area of Barcelona and its metropolitan surroundings.
It has also happened in Tarragona: it is because they are points that generate "heat islands" due to the concentration of energy for urban uses and construction materials.
In Barcelona, the warmest point has been detected at the station in the Raval neighborhood, next to the historic UB building and non-existent in the years between 1961-1990: an average annual temperature of 17.9 degrees has been recorded.
At the Tortosa-Roquetes observatory (Tarragona) an average temperature of 18.4 has been reached, the highest in the territory taking into account that the average for Catalonia is 13.1.
On the other hand, at the Vall de Boí observatory (Lleida) the average temperature recorded is 2 degrees, that is, "there is almost 20 degrees of difference" between the warmest point in Catalonia and the coldest.
The professor has warned that older people with chronic diseases "suffer greatly from these temperatures and it is a public health problem" if they live in conditions of energy poverty.
"The heat at night kills, and a city like Barcelona has torrid nights. Mortality increases a little more than 20% depending on the pathology that the person has," he insisted.
The rainiest point has been located in the Espot observatory (Lleida), with an average annual rainfall of 1,563 millimeters, and the driest point has been the Riba-roja reservoir (Tarragona), below 324 millimeters, being Espot "five times rainier than the driest."
The average rainfall in Catalonia is 680 millimeters, that is, "what is collected in a cylindrical container in Catalonia on average is three and a half spans", although it is above the average for the rest of Spain, which is 640 millimeters.
The director of Meteocat has advanced that there is the possibility of extending the heat warnings, which this year have been made for the coast and pre-coastal areas, to the whole of Catalonia.
Asked about the drought in Catalonia, Martín-Vide answered that Catalonia "would be worse than in the 2018 drought" if it did not have the two desalination plants, and he does not believe that there are sufficient signs that the drought could end soon.
