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Central Spain records temperatures of -25°C after snowstorm

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Central Spain records temperatures of -25°C after snowstorm

#51

Post by darthcoder4242 »

cal5k wrote: post #2

Cold-blooded Canadian here, so forgive me for asking - is this highly unusual?

I am from Madrid, and I can tell this is in fact highly unusual. From time to time it might snow in Madrid a couple of days, but nothing like this. In the mountains of course it happen almost every year, but not in the plains...

All the cities in central Spain are collapsed by the ice and snow (including the capital), there are no public transportation, emergencies services can barely make it into affected zones, a lot of people don't have water supply because of frozen pipes (including myself), trucks with food and supplies are still stuck and cannot enter in the city...

This chaos is of course because we are not prepared for this extreme cold weather, and we are not prepared because this is VERY unusual.

Let's say this is the same unusual as in the covid-19 pandemic,nobody would have imagined it a year ago.

Re: Central Spain records temperatures of -25°C after snowstorm

#54

Post by baxtr »

cs702 wrote: post #11

For those accustomed to US/Imperial units, -25×9÷5+32=-13°F. Temperatures in Madrid dropped to -16°C (3°F). As others here have mentioned, these temperatures are unusually low for January in this region of Spain. They are the kinds of temperatures one would have seen in January during the "Little Ice Age" between the 15th and 19th centuries.[a][b][c] Let's hope this unusual drop in temperature is just a "one-off" rar…

Wasn’t this kinda expected? It’s an El Niño year I believe? Australian summer is also colder than usual I think.

EDIT: Seems like it’s a “La niña” Winter...

Re: Central Spain records temperatures of -25°C after snowstorm

#55

Post by tpmx »

tomalpha wrote: post #45
tpmx wrote: post #3

In the mountains, at about 3k feet or 1k meters elevation. Yes, the headline is quite misleading. I expect more from the BBC . From the article: > The temperature plunged to -25C (-13F) in Molina de Aragón and Teruel, in mountains east of Madrid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molina_de_Arag%C3%B3n > Elevation 1,065 m (3,494 ft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teruel > Elevation 915 m (3,002 ft)

The headline doesn’t come across as misleading to me. I interpreted it as the temperature having been recorded somewhere in central Spain which appears to be accurate (granted my Spanish geography isn’t great). The tone also appears to be consistent with what else is being reported - that this is unusual or possibly even extreme weather. I’m assuming your expectation was different. If so I’d be be curious as to how y…

Knowing the topography of Spain helps.

My interpretation is that the very, very woke BBC staff picked what seems like extreme temps from a mountain region and then technically correctly wrote that "Central Spain" "records temperatures of -25C". That is all.

Do note: I'm not a climate change denier. I just hate crap like this, with a passion. I don't think we should have to abandon facts in this particular fight.

It seems like a bunch of people here think we should. That's very scary and destructive, IMO.

Re: Central Spain records temperatures of -25°C after snowstorm

#56

Post by jwcacces »

renedet wrote: post #53

Where's the global warming(lie)?

This is global warming. The globe as a whole gets warmer, and the weather gets more erratic.

See: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/01/clima...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/01/30/this...

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/12/if-global-warming...

or anything else you get when you search "global warming colder winters"

Re: Central Spain records temperatures of -25°C after snowstorm

#57

Post by u678u »

cal5k wrote: post #2

Cold-blooded Canadian here, so forgive me for asking - is this highly unusual?

The Spanish people definitely dont have Canada quality heating or insulation.

Compared to most of the world Canada is pretty much like living in the arctic. :) Even Americans dont want to live in the top half of the USA any more.

Re: Central Spain records temperatures of -25°C after snowstorm

#58

Post by harperlee »

imnotlost wrote: post #35

Snow in Madrid is definitely unusual but Spain gets snow every year. "You can go to Puerto de Navacerrada for a few hours of skiing then return to Madrid to continue visiting the many attractions in Europe’s fourth-largest city." https://www.justapack.com/best-ski-resorts-in-spain-ski-reso...

It used to be more frequent. When I was in school, there was at least a day per winter when snow would not melt and you woke up to whit(ish) streets in Madrid (city). Nothing that jammed traffic or made us skip school by far, but you got some snow to throw around. Currently that does not happen; and when it happens it seems heavier. Last traffic-disrupting snowfall was 2009 in Madrid.

In Madrid (region), at less than an hour driving, we have a Sierra where we used to have 3 skiing stations. Now we only have 2 (Navacerrada and Valdesquí) because Cotos had to close. And snow melts more quickly. My father always boasts that he once skied in the Madrid Sierra on May 15th, and with current climate that's difficult to believe. But I've seen how the skiing season gets shorter year after year. 15 years ago everybody made plans for going skiing to the Pyrenees on the Inmaculada holiday (early November), and currently all bets are off even for the Constitution holiday (early December).

Re: Central Spain records temperatures of -25°C after snowstorm

#59

Post by tgv »

antiman0 wrote: post #4

A few days ago, someone posted a blog post here on HN [1] explaining the phenomenon which causes this: https://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/polar-vortex-co... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25713704

I don't think the two are related. At least, I haven't heard anyone mention it as the cause.

Re: Central Spain records temperatures of -25°C after snowstorm

#60

Post by _Microft »

spapas82 wrote: post #52

Wow that's really strange because here in Greece we have probably the hottest January of the last years with temperatures around 20c!

It’s not that surprising. While climate change is often discussed in terms of increasing average temperature, the change will come with much larger variations than we are currently experiencing. A lot of these extremes will ‚average out‘ but that won’t make hot summers or cold winters less unpleasant (or deadly).
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