Palma on Thursday. | Miquel À. Cañellas

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On Thursday, the Aemet met agency forecast that Mallorca would register the highest temperatures of the current spell of unseasonably warm weather.

The maximum was 24.8C, which was in Binissalem in the interior. According to Aemet weather stations, Sineu, which is pretty much the geographic centre of Mallorca, was the only other place to record a temperature above 24 degrees - 24.5C. Other top temperatures were 23.5 Sa Pobla, 23.4 Manacor, 23.2 Porreres, 23.1 Arta, 22.5 Petra and Santa Maria, 22.3 Lluc and Llucmajor, 22.0 Pollensa.

Right on the coasts, therefore, it wasn't that warm, but it was still warm enough for people to take to the beaches. At this time of the year, being pleasant enough to sunbathe on the beach does rather depend on the breezes. If they are up, then they are likely to be chilly. On Thursday, as has been the case for a few days, there was virtually no breeze. For sunbathing, a UV rating of 2 means that working on that tan takes some time.

Is this warm weather in January unusual? In recent years, it's not that unusual. In 2016, for instance, there was a high of 25C on January 8, which was on the coast - Puerto Pollensa. Three years ago, Son Servera registered 26.8C towards the end of the month, which beat a January record of 24.6 for the weather station that had been set in 2018.

2016 was the warmest January in Mallorca for 55 years and since the current series of records started in 1961. The trend, as with the rest of the year, is for warmer temperatures. There again, this time last year there was a fair amount of snow in the mountains, the prelude to what occurred a month later - Storm Juliette and the heaviest snowfall for years.