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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

#11

Post by cs702 »

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" rare climate event, and not a portend of things to come.

--

[a] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age

[b] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/01/how-the-little...

[c] http://www.iberianature.com/material/iceage.html

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

#13

Post by guidedlight »

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

We are also entering a solar minimum, the last one was linked to a “little ice age” in Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maunder_Minimum

I don’t know how climate change will affect this. But we might be in for an interesting few years.

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

#16

Post by evgen »

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…

I believe that this is due to the recent collapse of this year's polar vortex. The same thing happened last year and pushed large amounts of cold polar air into Europe. We are expecting a few more waves of this over the next few weeks.

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

#18

Post by marvel_boy »

antiman0 wrote: post #10
cal5k wrote: post #2

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

Spain almost never sees degrees below 0°C [1]. [1] https://www.climatestotravel.com/climate/spain

Not true. In the north range mountains there are below zero temperatures every winter.
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