2017 was Spain’s hottest ever year, data shows

Across Spain, the average annual temperature was 16.2ºC in 2017, which is almost as high as Andalucía’s average annual temperature of 18ºC.

While an average annual temperature of 16.2ºC might appear relatively mild at first glance, consider what this actually means: it means that in 2017, Spaniards could walk around outside in a t-shirt pretty much all the time and anywhere…

At night, in winter, on the mountains, in the far north – the climate in Spain was supremely clement last year, with the 16.2ºC average, some 1.1ºC above the average for the period between 1980 and 2010.

And while 2017 did not record the highest temperature ever seen in Spain (that accolade belongs to 2003 when Seville registered a sweltering 51.2ºC), Granada airport’s 45.7ºC temperature in July came amid weeks of incessant heat during one of two lengthy heatwaves to hit the nation last year.

Considering that already in 2018 the Costa del Sol has seen ‘snow’  – which actually turned out to be hailstones – on the beaches, and there have been many sub-zero days in Madrid and elsewhere, 2018 might not be able to surpass last year’s record average temperature.

Which would not be a bad thing, of course. Climate change – despite being disputed in some circles – is beginning to feel tangible in many parts of the world, so if Spain can buck the trend of increasingly hot years, then that would indeed offer some respite to those that struggle with the heat.

The Spanish weather agency AEMET said that five of the ten hottest years since 1965 have been recorded in the last decade.

However, rainfall distribution was far more uneven last year than usual, with the Mediterranean coastline actually much wetter in 2017 than it has been for at least a decade.