Extremely hot and mostly sunny conditions were recorded across southern Europe this week. Parts of Spain recorded record high temperatures for the month of May, with the southern city of Jaén in Andalusia recording 40.3C (104.5F) on Friday May 20, according to Spanish weather agency Aemet. Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Andújar, temperatures exceeded 42°C two days in a row.
Intense heat also affected North Africa, with the town of Sidi Slimane in Morocco recording its hottest day in recorded history, reaching a scorching 45.7°C. cannot be directly attributed to the climate crisis, scientists believe that the severity and duration of heat waves are expected to increase in the future in response to a warmer global climate.
Elsewhere in Europe, strong storms swept through the northwest last Friday, bringing powerful winds, torrential rain, hail and even a few tornadoes. A tornado swept through the town of Paderborn in western Germany where 43 people were injured as a result of flying debris, with roofs blown off and trees downed. Heavy localized rain caused flash flooding and one death, a 38-year-old man who suffered an electric shock when his basement flooded in the western German town of Wittgert.
Just a month away from the summer solstice, parts of Colorado in the United States experienced a snowfall in late May on the 21st, 24 hours after experiencing temperatures above 30°C. A powerful cold front dropped temperatures by more than 30 degrees in less than 36 hours, bringing snowfall to many areas. Parts of Denver were around 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm), while heights southwest of Cripple Creek and around Palmer Lake recorded around 20 inches.
In the far southeastern United States and Mexico, the first large plume of Saharan dust arrived in Florida after traveling more than 4,000 miles across the Atlantic, turning skies gray and reducing the quality of the weather. ‘air. Storms developing over North Africa eject dust particles higher into the atmosphere and this plume often moves eastward on equatorial trade winds blowing from the east. Millions of tons of dust particles cross the Atlantic each year, acting as fertilizer for the Amazon rainforest.