By zones, January was warm in large areas of the northern third and the center of the Iberian Peninsula, very warm in some mountain areas and even extremely warm in points of the Pyrenees. It showed, however, a cold character in the interior of the Ebro valley and in points west of Castilla y León, where persistent fogs were frequent, as well as in the peninsular southeast and the Andalusian Mediterranean coast. In the Balearic Islands, January was between warm and very warm, while in the Canary Islands it was very variable between some areas and others, being cold altogether.
In relation to thermal anomalies, these remained above + 2ºC in some mountain points of the northern peninsular half, while reaching negative values, around -1ºC, inside the Ebro valley, in areas of the center- west of Castilla y León near the Duero, and on the Mediterranean coast of Andalusia and Murcia, reaching anomalies close to -2ºC in some areas.
The maximum and minimum daily temperatures were placed on average 0.5ºC above the normal value of January, resulting in a daily thermal oscillation equal to the normal one of the month.
As for records, a minimum temperature was recorded on the 31st of 12.6ºC at the main station in Lugo, a value that exceeded the previous highest record of the January daily minimum temperature series, with data since 1986.
A January with record rainfall
The month of January has been as a whole wet, with an average rainfall over Spain of 71mm (liters per square meter), a value that exceeds by 11% the normal value that is 64 mm (reference period 1981-2010).
Precipitation has been very unevenly distributed both spatially and temporarily. Thus, in the first fortnight they were very scarce, not reaching 10% of the total rainfall of the month, and the spatial distribution in the accumulated of the month shows that inside both Castillas the rainfall did not reach 30 mm, while in some areas of the Mediterranean coast and west of Galicia, they exceeded 200 mm. Although the month has been very wet in a wide area from Catalonia to Murcia including much of Aragon, as well as in Malaga, Mallorca and Menorca, and even extremely wet in Girona, areas near the mouth of the Ebro and south of Valencia, on the contrary it has been very dry in Cantabria, the Basque Country and some areas of the Canary Islands.Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge
The accumulated rainfall has been higher than normal values in the Mediterranean, Balearic, western Galicia and some areas of Andalusia; Normal values have doubled in an area that includes Catalonia, Aragon, Valencian Community, Murcia and eastern Castilla-La Mancha, as well as in areas of Malaga, and islands of Mallorca and Menorca, and have even tripled in areas of the northeast and southern Catalonia, east of Aragon, north and south of the Valencian community, north of the provinces of Alicante and Murcia, and some small areas in the Balearic Islands.
On the contrary, rainfall has not exceeded 75% of the normal value over a wide area of the peninsular center that extends from the Cantabrian regions to Extremadura and northern Andalusia, not reaching half of the normal value in Cantabria, Basque Country, northeast and southeast of Castilla y León, some areas of Castilla-La Mancha, northern Andalusia and in the Canary Islands.
As for records, the highest daily rainfall in January between main observatories that have exceeded the previous highest value of their corresponding series were recorded on the 21st with 137 mm in Tortosa and 88 mm in Barcelona / airport, on the 19th with 72 mm in Menorca / airport and 71 mm in Palma / airport, and on the 21st with 41 mm registered in Zaragoza / airport.
As for the total monthly precipitation recorded in main observatories, the previous highest value of its corresponding series has also exceeded 242 mm in Girona / airport, 241 mm in Tortosa and 174 mm in Barcelona / airport. Finally, records have also been broken in relation to exceeding the previous highest number of hail days in January in Girona / Costa Brava, Tortosa and Teruel.
Note: The data used to prepare this climatological advance are provisional and are subject to subsequent validation.
