2014, A Non-Exceptional Year with the Highest Mean Temperature Recorded in 40 Years - On Land, Sea And Air - at the Costa Brava (NW Mediterranean)

Abstract

Based on routinely meteorological observations and an uninterrupted time series of sea temperatures at 6 levels in the upper 90 m, with a mean weekly frequency, since 1974, we found there was almost nothing exceptional in 2014. At least nothing relevant or not seen any time during these last 40 years, such as: heat waves, snow storms, inundations, drought, storm surges, etc. However, 2014 finished with the me an temperature record at sea, from surface to ~90 m, as well as at the meteorological station by the coast, in l'Estartit, a small town located in the Costa Brava on the NW Mediterranean coast (~2°N, 3°E). We reached 1st January 2015 with a water column more than 2°C above the average in the upper 90 m and the highest mean sea level recorded in the last 24 years. We are going to present the main characteristics of this non-exceptional year in comparison with the others, and try to find clues to explain such records. For example small anomalies such as: low winds or wet summer, and curiously mild, summer