Alicante registers hottest January day since 1858

AFTER suffering early-morning temperatures close to freezing in the first week or so of this month, Costa Blanca weather has gone completely to the opposite extreme: The mercury reached a peak yesterday (Friday) in the city of Alicante not seen in 163 years.

It beat the temperature recorded 39 years ago – in 1982 – on January 7 which, at 29.2ºC, joined this Thursday (January 28) as the second-warmest day in the first month of the year in history.

Soaring to 29.8ºC, yesterday's figure made it the hottest January day since records in the metropolitan area began being taken in the year 1858.

Faculty head of the Climatology Laboratory at Alicante University Jorge Olcina – who is also chairman of the Spanish Geographers' Association – said Friday broke all records for the city for January.

Prior to the 1982 figure – which set a record unbroken until now – the hottest January days in Alicante had not even happened in the last century, and even then, were several degrees lower.

Thermometers shot up to 26.8ºC on January 25, 1865 and again on January 15, 1868, and since then but before 1982, the warmest it had ever reached was 26.4ºC, on January 13, 1881.

Similar figures were seen in Elche, a smaller city a few kilometres south of Alicante – famous for its UNESCO palm-tree forest, the largest on earth, and for being the discovery site of the nationally-renowned Iberian-era Dama de Elche, a prehistoric bust of a woman in almost perfect condition.

Here, the mercury maxed out at 29.3ºC.

Midway between the two locations, at Alicante-Elche airport – which is in fact located in the village of El Altet – Thursday and Friday both saw highs of 28.3ºC, the warmest ever recorded in the month of January at the terminal.

Those used to northern European climates might picture residents in the Alicante area pouring with sweat and desperately seeking the nearest shaded spot, with thermometers teetering on the 30ºC mark, but in practice, the sub-tropical Mediterranean climate of the area means 30ºC is merely pleasantly warm; summer temperatures pushing the mid-30s, combined with the greater humidity levels, are when it starts to get sweltering.

Anecdotal evidence reveals that most residents in Mediterranean Spain frequently find late January to be generally warmer than most of February, and quite often, even warmer than March.

Although Alicante city is one of the warmest parts of the Comunidad Valenciana region in autumn, winter and spring, its northern neighbours were also very balmy and un-winterlike on Thursday and Friday, according to the met office.

The region's northernmost provincial capital, Castellón, registered the third-highest January temperature on Thursday and, on Wednesday, the sixth-highest, in history.

Between the two, Valencia city did not break any records for January heat, but reportedly came very close to its historic highs for three consecutive days, from Wednesday to Friday.

Official figures from Castellón and Valencia have not been revealed, but both were said by residents to have exceeded 25ºC.