March: Hot and very dry in Portugal
2021-04-09 (IPMA)
The globe average temperature in March 2021 was 0.2 ° C higher than the average of 1991-2020. It was the 8th highest value for the month of March; the seven hottest marches occurred after 2010.
In Europe the average value of the average air temperature was close to the average value.
In mainland Portugal, March was classified as hot and very dry (Fig. 1).
The average value of average air temperature, 12.57 ° C, was 0.66 ° C higher than the normal value 1971-2000.
The average value of maximum air temperature was +1.65 ° C higher than normal, being the 5th highest value since 2000; the mean value of the minimum air temperature was -0.34 ° C below the normal value.
Throughout March the maximum temperature values above the normal monthly between 14 and 18 and from the 22nd, with emphasis on the 28 and 31 with deviations> +6 ° C.
On the 31st, the highest maximum temperature values in some meteorological stations were exceeded, with Elvas (30.1 ° C) and Aveiro (29.8 ° C), stations with long series, since 1941 and 1981, respectively.
The average value of the amount of precipitation in March, 15.3 mm, was much lower than the normal value 1971-2000 and corresponds to only 25%.
According to the PDSI index at the end of March, some regions of the territory returned to be in the class of weak drought (Douro valley, Tagus valley, Alentejo and Algarve).
The percentage distribution by classes of the PDSI index in the territory is as follows: 0.6% light rain, 81.3% normal and 18.1% light drought.
March 2021 Climate Summary is available for reading in the link below. For knowing the complete cliamatological information about this month, please wait until our climate bulletin be published and placed here: https://bit.ly/3p0J104
Imagens associadas
Surface air temperature anomaly, March 2021 (ECMWF)
Figure 1: Percentage of precipitation in relation to normal (%)
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