After floods, Spain records warmest November ever

Spain has registered its warmest November since record-keeping began more than six decades ago, even after October ended with its worst floods in a generation, official data showed Tuesday.

November's average temperature was 12.4 degrees Celsius (54.3 Fahrenheit), which was 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than the previous record for the month in 1983, and 2.8C higher than the November average between 1991 and 2020, national weather agency AEMET said on social media.

It was the highest average temperature for a month of November since the agency began to keep records in 1961.

"It was also a very dry November overall," the agency said, adding that precipitation was 40 percent below normal levels "despite the abundant rains" during the first days of the month in the Mediterranean.

Torrential rains on October 29 caused flash floods that killed at least 230 people and swept away cars and wrecked homes and businesses, mainly in the eastern region of Valencia on the Mediterranean coast.

The storm was followed by several episodes of heavy rain in the region during the first week of November that hampered the clean-up operation.

Spain endured its second-hottest year on record in 2023 with an average temperature of 15.2C, just below the record 15.5C registered in 2022.

As global temperatures rise because of climate change, scientists have warned that heatwaves and other extreme weather events like droughts and wildfires will become more frequent and more intense.