The month of July was the hottest worldwide, but temperatures in Portugal were close to normalhave enlarged the arid area, currently 97% of the territory.
The values were released this Friday by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), in last month’s climate bulletin, according to which on July 31, 97% of the territory was in meteorological drought, 34% in severe and extreme drought classes, especially in Alentejo and Algarve.
On Tuesday, the European Copernicus service had already reported that July was the hottest month ever recorded on Earthmarked by heat waves and fires around the world.
According to the data released at the time July was 0.33°C (degrees Celsius) warmer than the month that held the record to date (July 2019, when an average of 16.63°C was recorded). The air temperature was also 0.72°C warmer than the average (1991-2020) in Julypointed to the Copernicus.
In data released this Friday, the IPMA also highlights the fact that July is the warmest and that the estimated average temperature shows a deviation of more than 0.7°C from the average for the period 1991-2020.
Heat waves of high intensity and magnitude were recorded in several regions of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in Southern Europe, with average air temperature anomalies of about +4°C in Italy, Greece and Spain.
This was due to the transport of very hot and dry air masses from North Africa to Southern Europe. Very high air temperatures were also recorded in North Africa and the Canadian Arctic, with deviations of +5ºC and +7ºCrespectively.
However, mainland Portugal had normal temperatures for that time, without heat waves, by the so-called anticyclone of the Azores, which caused maritime air to enter from the north (the north), more humid and colder.
Due to the usual situation, it didn’t rain either, so July was very dry in terms of rainfall. The average temperature was slightly above normal (+0.34ºC), the minimum -0.23ºC below normal and the maximum +0.90°C above normal.
July was the fifth driest July in Portugal since 2000 and in that month the values of the percentage of water in the soil decreased throughout the territory, especially in the regions of Nordeste Transmontano, Tagus Valley, Alentejo and Algarve.
“These regions have soil water percentages below 10% and in many places soil water content is at the level of permanent wilting point,” warns the IPMA in its July climatological bulletin.
Source: DN
