March in Spain was the driest for sixty years

Highs on the mainland reached 30C

Cloudy in Mallorca. | Joan Taberner

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma12/04/2021 17:30

March 2021 was the driest since 1961, the met agency Aemet reporting that it was "normal" in terms of temperature and was the eleventh warmest since 2001 and the twenty-second warmest since 1961. There were, however, occasions when 30C was reached on the mainland.

In terms of rainfall, this was just 37% of what would normally be expected. The average for the country was 17 litres per square metre. In the Balearics, however, there was twice as much rain as normal. In the southeast of the mainland, there was double the amount of normal rain, while in much of the country, including the Canaries, rainfall was below 25% of the usual amount. The record rainfall was 95 litres per square metre at Alicante-Elche Airport.

The average temperature for the whole of the mainland was 9.9C, which was 0.1C above average. In the Balearics, the average was 11.9C, which was 0.3C below the normal value. This was also the case in the Canaries, where the monthly average temperature was 15.7C. In certain parts of the country, e.g. western Andalusia and Galicia, the temperature was one degree above average.

From March 23 to the end of the month, there was a warm spell during which highs were above 30C in areas of Andalusia and Extremadura as well as in parts of the Cantabrian Sea. On March 31, heat records were broken at seven weather stations.