Change winter clothes for summer clothes in the closet. That is the great weather dilemma that Riojans are facing this spring. As soon as they can dust off their t-shirts and shorts because the heat is very intense, as … They have to go back to their jackets and umbrellas because the temperatures are plummeting and the water is falling from the sky. It is a very variable season, but once the fifth month of the year is over, one conclusion can be drawn: it was the coldest May in the last five years.
Within the great variability that spring is offering, this Wednesday has also been a day of contrasts. While the State Meteorological Agency reported that the average temperature of the autonomous community had been below the historical average in the fifth month of the year, the region exceeded 30 degrees of maximum temperature (33.6 in the Logroño station from the SOS Rioja at 6:30 p.m.) and the Regional Executive activated the Alert, Prevention and Control Plan for the effects of excess temperatures on health.
This year has been the coldest May in the last five years, with an average temperature of 13.3 degrees Celsius, two tenths less than the 13.5 that is taken as a reference for the last three decades. And there were days in which the average temperature at the Logroño meteorological station was above 20 degrees, establishing the ceiling on the 29th, with 21.3.
Those 13.3 degrees have remained very close to the 13.4 recorded in 2021 and the almost 14 reached, on average, last year. Much further away are the 16 that there were in 2022, a figure that was even exceeded, slightly, in 2020, this being the May with the highest temperature in the last five years, according to the data available to the State Agency for Meteorology.
What’s more, May 2020 has been the second warmest in the last 60 years, only surpassed by the almost 16.5 degrees that were recorded in 1964. On the other side of the coin, there are 8 degrees on average in May. in 1984, the lowest record in the last six decades, or 9.6 in 2013, the coldest May so far this century.
More than 30 degrees
And if May was colder than usual, the first days of June have served to overcome the barrier of 30 degrees Celsius. This is what happened this Wednesday, the date on which the Government of La Rioja has decided to launch its plan for the effects of high temperatures on health, which will remain active until next September 30.
The objective of this initiative is, as explained by the Executive, “to raise awareness among the general population about the risks of exposure to excessive temperatures and, especially, among minors, the elderly, patients with chronic base and people who, for work, sports or leisure reasons, suffer from excessive exposure to heat.
Among the recommendations are the use of high sun protection cream, frequent hydration and the use of glasses, caps, visors and light clothing, in addition to an adequate diet and adapting the practice of physical exercise outside outside of central hours. of the day.
Emphasis is also placed, among other points, on keeping the home “cool”, drinking without being thirsty and taking extreme care of the elderly. In this sense, the detection of people at risk will be launched for “their assessment, care, treatment or admission if they require it.” Furthermore, if heat levels remain “abnormally high”, the participation of Civil Protection personnel and the rest of the Community’s resources may even be requested to deal with these situations.
