Why is it so hot in Alicante this year? Aemet explains

It is now official. The Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has confirmed that Alicante is experiencing the warmest Hogueras on record. This Monday and on Saint John's Day, temperatures will exceed the normal average by 4.2 degrees Celsius and surpass those of 2005, which were previously the warmest, by 1.3 degrees. As a result, a yellow alert has been activated. And we are not talking about 1939, when the Ciudad Jardín observatory was established, but about data dating back to the 19th century.

The situation is not just a temporary occurrence this week. Alicante has been suffering from temperatures well above normal throughout June. There are no precedents for such a warm June, with temperatures expected to be more than 3.5 degrees higher than usual and likely to surpass June 2022, which was previously the warmest June, by almost 1 degree Celsius. And the worst part is that it seems to have no end.

Aemet forecasts another very warm week, with a slight thermal drop between Wednesday and Thursday, noticeable mainly inland and barely on the coast. However, a new rise is expected during the upcoming weekend.

This intense and persistent heat is compounded by the absence of a westerly wind episode, which typically spikes temperatures, leaving only stability and breezes. Why is June so warm without a westerly wind episode?

One explanation from Aemet is the extremely weak sea breezes we are experiencing. June is usually the month with the strongest sea breezes, but this year they are lacking intensity.

Several factors contribute to these weak breezes. The main one is that the breeze is a closed southeast cell at the surface, turning southwest and west from 1000-1500 meters. Without a counter-breeze, the breeze is very weak.

An example is this Monday. In the vertical profile forecast at 5 p.m. in Alicante, besides a very dry atmosphere, meteorologists observe an east wind component up to 4 kilometers altitude, without a counter-breeze, preventing strong surface breezes. With such a weak breeze, the thermal inversion layer that occurs when cool sea air enters is very shallow, 500-600 meters thick, whereas at this time of year it usually exceeds 1000 meters.

The significant warm anomaly of the Mediterranean is another factor explaining the weak breezes these days. The entire Mediterranean, from Almeria to Tarragona, is recording temperatures above 25 ºC.

The high temperature of the Mediterranean, as a result of climate change, has a direct effect on Alicante's climate and the arrival of more extreme heat. According to a study by the Mediterranean Studies Centre (CEAM), the first heatwave of each summer is advancing at a rate of four days per decade since 1985, while ending three days later.

This phenomenon has been occurring since 1985, from which point heatwaves have increased by 90%. The consequence of this is directly related to the increase in the Mediterranean Sea's temperature.

This is explained by Jorge Olcina, Professor of Geography at the University of Alicante (UA) and climatology expert, who has provided this newspaper with some insights into why Alicante's summer is becoming increasingly hot and long.

"The summer is increasingly extending into June and September, and this study confirms this," admits the director of the UA's Climatology Laboratory, who insists that "it is related to the sea water, not just the air temperature, which is making June increasingly hot."