The climate in Lecrin Valley

To locate the study, the geographical coordinates of Dúrcal are:

Latitude: 36.988 °, Longitude: -3.566 °, Elevation: 789 m.

The topography within a radius of 3 kilometers from Dúrcal has extreme variations in altitude, with a maximum altitude change of 1,029 meters and an average altitude above sea level of 861 meters. Within a radius of 16 kilometers it also contains extreme variations in altitude (2,987 meters). Within a radius of 80 kilometers it also contains extreme variations in altitude (3,466 meters).

The temperature and rainfall data were obtained from the Junta de Andalucía webpage, from the meteorological station located in Padul, which is the closest to our study area.

https://www.juntadeandalucia.es/agriculturaypesca/ifapa/riaweb/web/estacion/18/10

The data obtained are below. We have focused on a period of 20 years, in which we have studied the maximum and minimum temperatures, average temperatures, rainfall, relative humidity, wind and radiation, since these factors can affect the crops.

The hot season is understood when the daily average maximum temperature exceeds 27ºC, in our case it would go from the end of May to the end of September, it lasts for about 3.3 months (133 days).

The cool season is one in which the maximum daily average temperature is less than 15ºC and in our case it would cover the months of mid-December to the end of February, about 2.5 months (74 days).

We have calculated the average of all of these data in each month, and these are the results:

If we now study the average temperature of each month, we can see that the month with the highest temperature is July with about 25.48ºC and the coldest January with an average temperature of 7.72ºC.

The average temperature is 15.53ºC, being the coldest year 2013 with a temperature of 14.74ºC and the hottest 2017 with 16.13ºC, so the difference between both years is less than 1.5ºC.

The difference between the average temperatures of the coldest and warmest months is about 18ºC.

These temperatures correspond to a CSA climate in the Köppen climate classification, it is a type of Mediterranean and subtropical climate that is characterized by dry, hot summers with average temperatures above 22ºC; and humid and rainy winters, with mild temperatures, as we can see in the table.

We cannot affirm that the average temperature has changed significantly in these 20 years.

We cannot say that one year has been especially hot, since the highest temperatures have been recorded in different years. 2011 was a year where the highest temperatures were recorded in both April and June.

We can see that of these 20 years, 2013 is the one that has a lower maximum, we could say that it has been the least hot of all, since the maximum recorded temperature was 36ºC.

The hottest day was recorded on 2005/07/08 with a temperature of 41.5ºC

According to data, we cannot say that one year has been significantly colder than the rest. We can highlight that perhaps 2013 and 2016 with lowest temperatures recorded in 2 different months.

We can see that 2011 is the one with the highest minimum in 20 years, so that we could say that it has been the least cold of all, and at the lowest temperature reached was -1.8 °C.

The day that the lowest temperature was recorded was on 2016/01/29 with a temperature of -12.9ºC.

The average temperature of these 20 years has been 15.53ºC, the average of the maximum temperatures has been 22.12ºC and the average of the minimum temperature 8.98ºC, never more than 2ºC of difference between the maximum and minimum of all of them, hence the graphs look almost like a straight line.

After checking the rainfall record, we can observe large differences. Although the average rainfall recorded is 428.45l, there have been very dry years, such as 2005 and 2017 and a couple of very rainy years such as 2010, with almost double the average amount of rain than in 2017.

By months, we can say that the wettest month is November, with an average of 61.84l, followed by March with 55.87l. The months when it hardly rains are July and August. We can observe two years, 2010 and 2018, when the rain in August is as abundant as in the rainiest years.

If we look at the number of days that has rained, the average is 94 days, which is 25% of the days of the year.

http://www.redhidrosurmedioambiente.es/saih/mapa/tiempo/real/subsistema/iii