In the Mediterranean, holidaymakers can expect pleasant water temperatures in summer, but what awaits them on Mallorca should exceed expectations. The water is so warm that some are already talking about a broth - and it's likely to get even hotter.
Tourists and locals in Mallorca are currently finding it difficult to cool off: on the Spanish holiday island, it is not only the sand and the air that are very hot these days - the seawater in particular is reaching unusually high temperatures. For example, 28.7 degrees were predicted this Saturday for Playa de Palma with the "Ballermann" party mile, which is very popular with German visitors - almost four degrees above the long-term average for July (24.8 degrees).
It's been like this for days - the "Mallorca Magazin" (MM) wrote about "bathtub temperature". "It feels like broth at times and August, with the traditionally highest water temperatures, is yet to come," wrote the weekly. The sea water is also significantly warmer as a result of the unusually long and intense heatwave that gripped virtually all of Spain between July 9th and 19th. "This is clearly due to climate change," meteorologist Bernat Amengual was quoted as saying by the Spanish weather service Aemet in "MM".
Cooling down in Mallorca is urgently needed: According to Aemet, the mercury column should climb to 33 to 34 degrees at the weekend on "Ballermann", in the center and north-east of the island even up to 39 degrees. In the capital Madrid it should get up to 40 degrees, in some regions of Andalusia in southern Spain even up to 43 degrees. However, the heat is expected to subside on Tuesday in both Mallorca and other parts of the country.
According to Aemet, the heat, combined with a drought that has lasted for months and strong winds, has favored the outbreak and spread of many fires. 2022 is already the most devastating forest fire year for Spain since records began. In the first almost seven months of the year, the flames destroyed more than 197,000 hectares of forest. For comparison: The almost 2000 square kilometers that have been destroyed so far in 2022 correspond to around 80 percent of the area of Saarland. On Saturday, however, all the fires except for one in Tenerife were largely under control.
