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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

#101

Post by knowhy »

baxtr wrote: post #54
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...

According to Wikipedia [0] that should not affect Europe.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Ni%C3%B1a#/media/File:La_Ni...

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

#102

Post by qayxc »

pengaru wrote: post #71

It's predicted that Europe will get colder due to climate change. "Europe will get cold toes" - NASA [0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DldSBIja2Kw&t=46s

Only Spain isn't Europe - meanwhile 12° further north, temperatures are normal (even a bit on the warmer side) for the season.

A single night of record breaking low temperatures doesn't mean much. 24 years ago today, it was -18°C in my little corner of the world, the next night it was more than 12°C warmer already.

Freak weather extremes will increase in both intensity and frequency, but doomsday predictions usually don't hold much water as we know too little about the system as a whole and the feedback mechanisms involved.

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

#103

Post by saool »

maaaaattttt wrote: post #33

To put this in context as well, most places (at the least in the southern parts of Spain) don't have central heating systems or proper insulation. A fireplace or reversible A/C if you're lucky.

I wouldn't extrapolate.

Most places in Spain have and need heating, apart from a few coastal enclaves in the south. Spain is the 5th largest user of energy for residential heating in the EU, behind Germany, France, Italy, and Poland.

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

#105

Post by [deleted] »

soyyo wrote: post #31
cal5k wrote: post #2

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

In Madrid city it may snow one or two times a year, but not all years, also most of the time the snow goes away the same day it falls. A few years the snow remains in the city for a couple of days, but is not that common and is usually seen as a joyful event. But this time, the whole city was completely covered in snow, all of it. Cars abandoned in the middle of the street, people skying in the main avenues, it was c…

[deleted]

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

#106

Post by kube-system »

renedet wrote: post #53

Where's the global warming(lie)?

weather =/= climate

Climate is more or less the average weather over time. Think about it this way:

Let's pretend (and for the sake of simplifying the problem), we have a tiny planet with only two equally sized places, A and B. And here's the (year 1) seasonal temperatures for each: (winter/spring/summer/autumn)

A: 10, 20, 30, 20

B: 15, 25, 35, 25

The global average temperature (if you average all the numbers) is: 22.5

Now, let's say in year 2, the numbers change to this:

A: 8, 22, 30, 20

B: 12, 28, 35, 27

Now the global average temperature has increased by a 0.25 degree to 22.75. But all of these things are also true:

1. A didn't get any warmer during the summer in year 2 than it did in year 1.

2. Both places got colder during the winter.

3. B only got 2 degrees warmer than last year.

4. The largest temperature fluctuation is 60% more extreme in year 1 than in year 2.

Now, expand this example to the thousands of places that we measure weather on earth and you can see why the weather in one location would contribute statistically very little to the overall climate.

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

#107

Post by stickfigure »

serf wrote: post #94
throw0101a wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who lives in Canada: you don't have to shovel rain.

as a former citizen of Huntington Beach CA during the 1997 El Nino storms, i'd take the snow. I have the newspaper clipping of my grandmother being rescued from her home via dinghy by city rescue workers. Everyone I knew had their house ruined in hours after weeks of shoveling sandbags fruitlessly in front of the neighborhoods and homes. And that was just the flood damage and personal effect , itself. Untold amounts…

Oh you sweet summer child... (take the summer part literally)

> i'd rather sweep it off my roof

Any significant amount of snow in LA would crush every single one of those beautiful flat modernist roofs. Snow load is no joke.

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

#108

Post by tpmx »

tomalpha wrote: post #64
tpmx wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 s…

That’s really interesting - thank you for replying.

Hey, I now see that my reply was kinda "bossy". Sorry; I was just a bit upset.

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

#109

Post by jansan »

m12k wrote: post #98

It's worth reiterating that the problem is climate change, not just global warming. There's more energy in the atmosphere, and that can lead to warmer weather (on average this is the case) but it also means there's more energy to whip up storms or move regions of hot or cold air much further, to places that are not used to them. So unusually cold weather can in fact be a result of climate change.

Sorry, this is too cheap. Basically all you are saying is that climate may change (which it always has) and whenever there is an unusaual weather event, you can blame it on man made climate change. I am not buying this.

If you were right, we should see at least "some" sort of trend, but at least in this official graphics, I just do not see it:

https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indica...

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

#110

Post by simias »

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #104

That's brutal. What kind of heating do these people have? Central heating, or electric registers in some rooms?

I can't speak for Madrid but here in Lisbon at roughly the same latitude we have no central heating and we usually go by with a single small ~900W space heater. According to wikipedia the all time record for low temperatures was -1°C, so it's usually fine.

If the temperature was to drop to below -10°C I'm not sure what I would do. I'd try to buy a better heater, but so would half the city so that might be a problem.

Madrid tends to have more extreme weather than here though, I suspect because the ocean offers us a certain thermal inertia.

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