Record Cold in Spain

So far, it's been a cold winter in Portugal. The first snow was registered in early December, which is technically not winter but fall. Temperatures rose subsequently to about normal for the season over Christmas, only to plunge down again into unusually cold temperatures. As I write this, temperatures in Porto range from around 2C at night to 10C during the day. This is well below the usual range of about 8C to 16C, and it's been like this for 10 days now, with no sign of relief before Sunday at the earliest.

The cold has not been confined to Portugal. As is often the case with extreme Iberian weather, Spain has been more affected. Spain registered its coldest temperature in recorded history on Wednesday, January 6 with the Catalan Pyrenees logging a bone-chilling -34.1C (-29.3F). Madrid is seeing below freezing temperatures, and snow is on its way.

Having lived in Portugal for the last 15 years, I've noticed a trend over the last few years in which summers have become increasingly mild and free of heat waves, and winters becoming correspondingly colder. Judging purely from such extremes, it very much appears that the climate of the Iberian peninsula is shifting towards something a little cooler than what we've been used to in the recent past.

My impression from friends living in other places is that they too see this kind of shift. There doesn't seem to be many places where temperatures have gone noticeably higher. Most of what I hear about are cold events. There are for sure hot days every now and again, but they are becoming increasingly rare while cold days are becoming more common.

One thing that I've noticed for myself here in Porto is that clear blue skies are becoming increasingly rare. Even during summer, when the skies used to be intensely blue, there's now more of a light haze. The ocean mist that usually lifts during the morning hours, hangs around for hours, sometimes for the entire day. While I welcome this myself due to my dislike of direct beating sun and intense heat, it's a peculiar development that no doubt serves to lower the temperatures.

Of course, none of this is very scientific. I'm just noting these things for myself. But as a result, I find all the hysteria surrounding the climate strange to observe. There's no direct evidence of any global warming, neither where I live or where my friends and relatives live. Where then is all this global warming taking place?

Climate change

By NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio, Key and Title by uploader (Eric Fisk) - https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/maps/index_v4.html, Public Domain, Link