Spain forum debates extreme heat headlines

Thermometer vs. the red map of the Mediterranean

On July 26, 2023, a user on a discussion forum questioned media coverage of heat in the Mediterranean. According to their post, after checking weather in several locations —Palermo, Corfu, Euboea, Rhodes— they found highs of 28ºC, 30ºC, and 34ºC, figures they believed did not justify the alarmist headlines. Other thread participants supported this impression with personal observations of a mild summer across various parts of Spain.

In the same debate, however, other users provided data pointing in the opposite direction. One participant cited records of 47ºC on July 25 in Sardinia and Sicily, a red alert for wildfires in the latter, and 14,000 hectares burned in Rhodes, around 10% of the island. Arrests of suspected arsonists in Greece and southern Italy were also mentioned, including one case recorded by a drone.

What the Palermo observatory data showed

A user claimed to have consulted the historical series from the Palermo astronomical observatory —which has been recording temperatures for 200 years— and stated that in July 2023 the absolute maximum was 41ºC, with only one day above 38ºC and the rest of the month between 29ºC and 33ºC. According to the same user, the observatory does not measure under current standard conditions but uses a thermometer exposed to full sun to allow comparison with its historical series. Another participant warned that a sensor in the sun yields higher temperatures than one in the shade over fresh grass.

The 47ºC in Sardinia and Sicily: when and where measured

Regarding the 47ºC figure, a user argued that such numbers are obtained by taking a specific day, in a specific valley, leeward, with Foehn effect, for a few minutes, and that elsewhere on the island those days' highs hovered around 40ºC before dropping to 25-30ºC. This is a methodological objection raised in the debate, not an independently verified fact.

The cooler summer contradicting the headline

Several participants described a mild summer in different parts of Spain. One user said that in central Seville, late in July, it was 22ºC at dawn, cloudy and breezy. Another stated that in the Madrid mountains, it was the coolest summer in twenty years. Nights requiring blankets in Almería and a week of heat in two months in Zaragoza were also mentioned. A participant claimed the summer was averaging 3 to 4 degrees cooler than the previous year; this is a user assertion, not official data.

Why map tonalidad matters more than the thermometer

Multiple messages in the thread agreed that the tonalidad scale of weather forecasts has become a communication tool. A user pointed out that the same value of 35ºC can appear yellow or red depending on the threshold set by the broadcaster. The idea that tonalidad conveys alarm regardless of the number is an opinion expressed in the debate.

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The doubt raised by several participants is not whether it gets hot in summer in the Mediterranean, but whether 28ºC, 30ºC, and 34ºC deserve the adjective "extreme" and a headline. The thread coexists with that impression and data like the 47ºC in Sicily and the fires in Rhodes, which point in the opposite direction.