Weather

Met agency confirms that Balearic summer will be hotter than normal

There are times when Majorca and the Balearics just get very hot. | R.L.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma07/06/2016 00:00

Last week it was the Eltiempo.es website that was offering its forecast for the summer's weather. The website typically does get its forecasts in before the meteorology agency Aemet does. But now we have Aemet predictions. The summer will be hot, it says. Average temperatures will be higher than normal and will mean that the average for June, July and August will be above 24 degrees, while rainfall will be below average.

Whereas Eltiempo suggested that temperatures will be up by around two degrees but that heatwaves weren't expected, Aemet says that it is too early to predict whether there will be heatwaves of a few days' duration or that the heat will be continuous, as was the case between 25 June and 15 August last year.

The temperature last summer, especially in July, was 1.2 degrees more than usual. But the models that Aemet is working on give trends rather than anything concrete. Nevertheless, the agency concurs with the predictions of the Mediterranean Climate Outlook Forum which point to temperatures being above average. This would suggest average maximum peaks of 29 degrees and minimums of 19.

June started cooler than usual but on Friday there was a shift, with the temperature at Palma airport having been 29.3C, almost three degrees above what would be expected for early June.