Outlook for this summer: dry and very hot

Staff Reporter APPLY lots of suncream this summer as it is a going to be a hot one, and even the sea will not be able to cool temperatures down. These warnings have come from the Alicante University Weather Laboratory. The University states that if it does not rain within the next few weeks then the sea temperature will be “very hot” in the Mediterranean this summer, compared to past years. Currently sea temperatures in waters off the Valencian Coast and in the Balearics are between 18 and 19 degrees, which “is normal for May”, said the professor at the Laboratory Jorge Olcina. The freezing winter during January, February and March caused sea temperatures to fall by 1 or 2 degrees lower than usual. For this reason, there has been a larger difference in sea temperatures from the winter until now. During the past few weeks the sea has really heated up more than usual in the western Mediterranean, and this is due to the “abundance of days with anticyclonic conditions, the sun and the presence of tropical air masses”, Olcina added. According to this weather expert, “if the current stable and dry weather continues, then the sea temperatures could turn out to be very high indeed at the height of summer”. However, the weather situation and the atmospheric changes have to be watched over the next few weeks and months, he added. “If the weather carries on this way, we will be able to close the year as one of the most driest in the last decade in the regions south of Alicante”, Olcina said. In addition, during these past weeks there has been practically “the same amount of intensity of the sun's rays than there is in the middle of August”, the Univeristy expert confirmed. For this reason, residents must “not forget to protect their skin if they are going to the beach or mountains at the weekends”, said Olcina.