Spain Hardly Warms, Whilst British Winters Collapse

[Yeti]

We often complain about our winters warming (indeed, the whole climate) in the UK, and perhaps even more often about the "cold going south".

Well look at this data for Spain compared to other countries, and how much of an increase there has/hasn't been across the two data sets (61-90 and 71-00).

Brussels 2.5, 3,1 (January); 9.7, 10.2 (annual)

Burgos 2.6, 2.7 (January); 9.9, 10.1 (annual)

Ávila 3.2, 2.8 (January); 10.4, 10.4 (annual)

León 3.1, 3.1 (January); 10.8, 10.9 (annual)

Aachen 2.4, 3.0 (January); 9.7, 10.1 (annual)

Freiburg 1.8, 2.4 (January); 10.8, 11.1 (annual)

Karlsruhe 1.2, 1.9 (January); 10.3, 10.7 (annual)

Notice Ávila (1130m) has actually fallen in January! Burgos (856m) has increased by 0.1-0.2, and León barely noticeably.

Here is some other data, to compare with our cities:

(January 61-90, 71-00, Annual 61-90, 71-00)

London 4.6, 5.2, 10.7, 11.0

Oxford 4.1, 4.6, 10.1, 10.4

Manchester 3.8, 4.2, 9.5, 9.8

Washington 0.9, 1.7, 13.7, 14.2

Vienna-Hohe Warte (T January)

- 1931-1960: -1,4 ºC

- 1961-1990: -0,6 ºC

- 1971-2000: 0,1 ºC

Madrid- Navacerrada (T January y t annual) (NOT Madrid itself, at 1800m!)

-1931-1960: -1,1 6,7

-1961-1990: -0,6 6,1

-1971-2000: -0,6 6,4

Madrid-Barajas (t January y t annual) (Airport)

-1961-1990: 5,5 13,9

-1971-2000: 5,4 14,1

Salamanca-Matacán (t enero y t anual) (800m)

-1961-1990: 3,7 11,6

-1971-2000: 3,6 11,7

Albacete- Los Llanos (t enero y t anual)

-1961-1990: 5,0 13,5

-1971-2000: 4,8 13,6

Vigo-Peinador (t enero y t anual)

-1961-1990: 8,2 13,4

-1971-2000: 8,3 13,6

Prague:

T enero 61-90: -0,2 ºC

T enero 71-00: 0,7 ºC

T anual 61-90: 9,9 ºC

T anual 71-00: 10,4 ºC

A brutal increase there.

You might also notice that the UK is perhaps NOT the greatest affected by the warming.

Of course, some areas warm and others cool, and you still have an overall warming, but I just thought it was very interesting to see that whilst the whole of Europe seems to be getting warmer, much of Spain (at least the interior) seems to be holding around the same values.

Edited February 16, 2009 by Yeti

[morfius]

Just a suggestion that the Spanish weather stations that you have quoted are at higher altitudes relative to those in the other countries. As upper air takes longer to change temperature this could be an explanation - perhaps a more experience member could prove me right/wrong on this.

[Yeti]

That's what I thought, until I saw these, all at low levels:

- Alicante: 17,9; 17,8

- Santander: 14,2; 14,1

- Teruel: 11,9; 11,8

- Barcelona: 15,4; 15,5

- Córdoba: 17,5; 17,6

- Girona: 14,3; 14,3

- Logroño: 13,4; 13,5

Amazing really how little warming there has been

[Android]

Isn't a comparison of (61-90) and (71-00) effectively a comparison of a single decade of change though?

The GISTEMP anomaly map for this comparison backs up your numbers, a large part of spain has negliable warming:

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/...200&pol=reg