January temperatures soar to nearly 30C in Spain as start of the year brings record heat

It isn’t yet the end of January and temperature records in Europe are already being broken.

Spain experienced a day of historic January heat on Thursday with some areas recording temperatures of more than 28C.

Fredes, Valencia - 1,200 metres above sea level - saw the mercury hit 21.6C. The ski resort of Puerto de Navacerrada which is usually covered in snow at this time of year didn’t drop below 10C at night.

Throughout January, temperature records have been broken in more than 90 places, according to Spanish meteorology institute AEMET. 

On 25 January alone more than 400 observation stations, around half of those in the national network, reached or exceeded 20C with the average maximum across the country around 18 to 19C.

To put this record high into perspective, the average maximum temperature in January is usually 10.6C.

The warm weather is expected to continue into the weekend with an area of high atmospheric pressure carrying a hot air mass from further south and blocking incoming storms from the Atlantic Ocean.

As several regions, including Andalusia and Catalonia, face historic drought the unusual heat and lack of rain are adding to worries about dwindling water supplies. Reservoir levels are critically low and even stricter restrictions on water use could soon be on the way.

Across the border in Portugal, the central district of Leiria reached 23C with weather agency IPMA expecting 24C there on Friday. It said temperatures on Thursday were 8 to 9C above normal levels in the north of the country.

In France, Météo-France is predicting that temperatures in the south of the country will remain above the seasonal average until the end of the month.

Le Luc in the southeastern Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region hit a high of 22.5C