THE heatwaves and drought are threatening this year’s wine harvest in Spain. An exceptionally hot summer has left grapes withering on the vines with many winemakers choosing to bring the harvest forward by at least a month. The vendemia (grape harvest) usually takes place during September but many have decided to start picking in August. Yields are expected to be down by an average of 15% to 25% depending on the region.
Positive
Grapes will be smaller but some winemakers believe this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “We will have fewer grapes to pick but it will have a positive effect on the markets because the wine will be better quality and at a good price,” says Castilla La Mancha Agriculture Minister Francisco Martinez. Spain’s olive groves are also struggling with warnings that harvests will be massively reduced pushing up prices of oil. Meanwhile, the country’s corn, wheat and barley crops could fall by as much as 13% this year, with prices inevitably rising.
DYING FOR A DRINK: Grape harvests threatened
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Scorchio! Vol. 3 Issue 87
It was three degrees above the average as July temperatures soar to an alarming new record By Fiona Govan
SPAIN has suffered its hottest July on record. Official data shows the mercury soaring to nearly three degrees above the average of the last 60 years, when records began. The country’s temperature for the month was 25.6 degrees, according to AEMET, the national meteorological office on Monday. It makes it 2.7ºC higher than the average from records dating back to 1961. Predictably, the hottest place in the country was Moron de la Frontera, in Sevilla province, where the dials hit 46ºC on July 24 during the second heatwave of the summer.
COPING: Children in Madrid deal with the heat The period, which sizzled from July 9 until July 26, was described as ‘the most intense, the most extensive and the second longest’ in history. It has also been one of the driest July’s with the least rainfall in the last 15 years.
THE heatwaves of the summer aren’t only taking their toll on land where wildfires have ravaged more than 230,000 hectares already across Spain. Temperatures are also rising in unprecedented levels in waters off the Spanish coast, posing a threat to marine life. In some areas of the Mediterranean off the Spanish coast, temperatures reached above 30ºC during the latest heatwave. Waters off Spain’s eastern and southeastern coasts and around the Balearic Islands are between 2.5ºC and 4ºC warmer than usual this summer, reaching 30ºC in some places.
Alarmingly, the months of May and June were also the warmest on record, with AEMET warning that summer seems to be starting a month earlier than it did six decades ago. As a result of the extreme heat and drought, Spain is suffering nearly its
Sea threat
These sudden, atypical spikes in temperature – which come on top of the long-term trajectory of the oceans warming – have disastrous consequences for aquatic fauna and flora. Aemet warned that the rise in water temperatures can lead to the proliferation of algae in coastal waters as well as a rise in jellyfish blooms. The warm sea temperature also brings an increased risk of storms with sudden torrential downpours likely to occur when cooler temperatures roll in.
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worst year of wildfires on record. Some 240,000 hectares had already been scorched in more than 370 blazes by the end of July. Meanwhile, water levels in reservoirs are worryingly low, although Valencia’s reservoirs are higher than in the rest of Spain.
Full
According to official data, the reservoirs in Valencia are 60% full compared to the national average of 40%. Locally, Benagever reservoir, which is 100km from Valencia city, is 96.6% full. However, Alicante’s capacity is lower according to official data reservoirs are at 50% and for this reason water restrictions are expected in the province. Over in Andalucia, reservoirs sit at 28% capacity, some 7% below where they were this time last year. Opinion Page 6
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