It's unbearable, I can't take it anymore! When will this unbearable heat wave end? These are some of the most repeated expressions during the last few days, which lead us to wonder if we will have to get used to living in a permanent heat wave throughout the summer.
This year we already have three heat waves, until now only two had been recorded in the same period. Moreover, they are much longer than usual. Although the first one, in June, lasted only a few days, the one in July lasted 13 days and the one in August has already lasted another 13 days. It should be emphasized that a heat wave is understood as a heat wave when the temperature exceeds 36ºC for more than three consecutive days in several seasons.
The meteorologist and former delegate of the territorial delegation of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) in the Balearic Islands Agustí Jansà said that "this year is rare", although he predicts that "we will have a summer as hot as this one more and more often". In this sense, he pointed out that "if we calculate based on data from an old climate (the period between 1971-2000) it would correspond to have a summer as hot as this one every thousand years.
If we do it on the basis of more recent climates (such as 1993-2022), we would have a summer like this every 40-50 years. In future, warmer climates, we will be able to have more frequent summers like this one.
In similar terms has expressed the deputy spokesman of the Aemet in the Islands, Bernat Amengual. "We are well above the usual heat," he says.
Although he recognises that we are immersed in a process of climate change, the meteorologist says: "I do not think that all summers are going to be records"; in his view, "it would not be sustainable". His forecast is that "possibly the next few years will not be so hot", although he warns that "we will have to get used to having more heat waves than before".
At this point, it should be noted that heat waves have skyrocketed in Mallorca. In the 1990s there was only one episode of extreme heat, specifically it took place between August 5 and 7, 1993. Between 2000 and 2009, four heat waves were recorded: one from June 21 to 24, 2003; another from August 10 to 14 of the same year; another from July 19 to 21, 2006; and the last one took place from July 22 to 24, 2009.
The rise in temperatures has been increasing and between 2010 and 2019 there have been seven heat waves in Mallorca: one from 9 to 11 August and another from 20 to 23 August 2012
. In 2015 there were two other episodes of extreme heat: one from July 5 to 8 and another from August 5 to 8. The deputy spokesman of the Aemet in the Islands, Miquel Gili, has stressed that since 2017 the Island has suffered heat waves every fiscal year.
One of them was recorded between July 29 and August 3, 2017; another, between August 3 and 5, 2018; one more, between July 26 and 29, 2019; and the following year, in 2020, between July 27 and August 1. It should be emphasized that in the last two years there has been more than one extreme heat episode. In the case of 2021 one was between July 22 and 24 and another, between August 11 and 15.