Autumn to be 'drier with higher temperatures in the South'

Autumn begins officially on Thursday, for which rain and lower temperatures are forecast for most of Spain. However, according to Fermín Elizaga, head of forecasts at the national weather agency AEMET at the Summer Weather Summary presentation in Madrid yesterday, temperatures in October, November and December should be slightly higher than normal in the Southern half of the country and in the Canary Islands. No significant changes are to be expected in the Northern half or the Balearics. As far as rainfall is concerned, these values are expected to be slightly below normal everywhere, with the exception of inland regions and the Southwest of the peninsula, where that tendency will be more acute. Forecasts for the winter include warmer temperatures than normal. Regarding the summer heat, Elizaga said>that this year's was one of the warmest on record, with average temperatures throughout Spain of 22.3ºC, about 1.4ºC above the normal.

In fact, this was the eighth hottest summer since 1970, following the summers of 003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2009, which also means that five of the hottest summers on recrd occurred in the 21st century.

This summer's maximum recorded temperature was 44ºC, registered on August 17 in Valencia, Alicante and Murcia, while the minimum was in June. The summer was also somewhat wetter, with average rainfall at 95 litres per square meter, whereas 'normal' rainfall is at 83.

The most significant rainfall figures were registered in Aguilar de la Frontera, in the province of Córdoba, where three people were killed thanks to torrential rain and flooding.

Geographically speaking, a spokesman for AEMET, Ángel Rivera, added that rainfall was above normal in Asturias, Cantabria, Andalucía, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia, Madrid, Cataluña and parts of Valencia. The rest of Spain, the summer was "nornmal to drier" in the North of Extremadura, the West of Castilla y León, and parts of Aragón, the Balearics and the Canary Islands.

Another piece of weather information revealed that, with 10 days left for the national Hydrological Year, accumulated rainfall are 20% above the norm for this time of year.