Overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday this week, twenty out of thirty weather stations in Mallorca registered minimum temperatures of 20C or more. In Capdepera and at Portopi in Palma, the minimums were 24 degrees. Only Son Torrella in the mountains in Escorca recorded a relatively low temperature; this was 13C.
An overnight minimum of 20 degrees or higher qualifies as a "tropical" night. It used to be that this was an exception rather than a rule and was confined to July and August. This is no longer the case. Between 2020 and 2022 there was a notable increase in the number of tropical nights on top of what had already become a high number. At Portopi there were 95 in 2020, then 115 in 2021 and 123 in 2022. In recent years, there has been an average of one tropical night in May, twelve in June, 17 in September and three in October. These are months when tropical nights never used to occur.
Miquel Gili, spokesperson for the Aemet met agency in the Balearics, says: "We are seeing a constant increase in temperatures year after year."
A study by Polytechnic University of Catalonia showed that there was an average increase in temperatures of around two degrees between 2010 and 2018. For maximum temperatures over this period, the increase was between three and five degrees. It was over these years that at least forty days with temperatures of 30C or more became a regular occurrence.
The study added that there was an increase in maximum temperature peaks between 2010 and 2018. For example, the lowest absolute maximum at Palma Airport in July 2011 was 36C. Over the final four years of the study, this was up to around 40C.
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