A study by the School of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona has assessed data from 21 weather stations in Spain since 1970. The findings were presented last week at the annual conference of Copernicus, the European Commission's Earth Observation programme.
Josep Roca, emeritus professor at the school, explains that Copernicus classifies temperatures of 25 degrees and more as summer. In the case of Palma, there were 84 summer days in 1971. By 2022 this number had increased to 171. Based on data from the 21 weather stations in Spanish cities, Palma has the fifth highest number of summer days.
Another issue is 'tropical' nights, when the temperature doesn't drop below 20 degrees. "Palma is above the average and tenth in the ranking. In 2022, 62 tropical nights were counted, while at the beginning of the 1970s there were none." As for torrid nights (more than 25C), between 2013 and 2022 there were nine.
Roca adds: "In Palma, the effect of tropical nights on health has not been studied, but it has been studied in Barcelona and it has a high relationship with the increase in mortality. In Palma, as in Barcelona, during the day the maximum temperatures do not exceed 33 degrees due to the softening effect of the sea breeze, but at night it doesn't cool down. That's the problem."
To solve the progressive heating of the city, Roca says that the only solution is to increase the green spaces in the city; these lower the temperature by up to three degrees. And he highlights the case of Los Angeles, where "the asphalt is painted white to cool the city".
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