The surface temperature of sea water in areas surrounding Spain reached a record in 2022 since data for this category was available (1940), as confirmed by the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) in a series of notes on its Twitter account. in which reference is also made to the recently released data on this marine thermal anomaly on a global scale.
In 2022, the temperature was 0.7 °C above the normal average (reference for the period 1991-2020) "in all the surface marine waters surrounding Spain, although in the Mediterranean the anomaly was higher, in some areas , at 1.4 °C", recalls Aemet.
As will also be remembered, the temperature of the sea water in the western Mediterranean last summer reached levels up to 4 degrees above normal, with particularly significant heat waves in the Balearic Islands, where a new record of 31 ºC was established in Sea water temperature on the Spanish Mediterranean coast.
"In the Balearic Sea, between the coast of the eastern peninsula and the Balearic Islands, the water was warmer than normal on 95% of the days in 2022," says Aemet, before adding that "from May to the end of the year, almost without interruption, it remained among the 5% of the highest values of the reference period”. On August 11, the Puertos del Estado buoy in Valencia measured for the first time practically 30 degrees in sea water.
The record of temperatures in the sea water off the coast of L'Estartit (Torroella de Montgrí, Baix Empordà), the most complete on the western Mediterranean coast, also indicates both the deviation of 2022, with respect to the average of the last decades, such as the relatively high temperature since the beginning of 2023. In fact, on practically all days this year temperatures have been recorded higher than usual in the sea water at this point on the Costa Brava, according to the data collected systematically by Josep Pascual.
"Marine heat waves, in addition to negatively affecting oceanic ecosystems, drive the temperatures of coastal cities towards higher values, something that can be seen in the increase in very hot nights on the shores of the Mediterranean", Aemet specifies in explanations disseminated by Servimedia.
The data on sea water temperature are added to what was released last January by Aemet in the sense that last year was the warmest ever recorded on the land surface of Spain since the national historical series of temperatures began in 1961. .
The AEMET climatological summary for 2022 indicates that the year was extremely warm throughout the country, with an average temperature over mainland Spain of 15.4 ºC, that is, 1.7 degrees above the average for the reference period (1981-2010).
