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Street thermometers in Spain '99 percent wrong'

Alex Dunham
Alex Dunham - [email protected]
Street thermometers in Spain '99 percent wrong'
The highest temperature ever recorded in Spain was of 47 degrees Celsius, contrary to what many street thermometers lead us to believe. Photo: Ricardo Ricote

Spain's outdoor thermometers, found in countless squares, roundabouts and bus stops across the land, are leading us to believe the temperature is much higher than it actually is.

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With all the recent debate about whether this summer will be the coldest in Spain for the past 200 years, it seems more important than ever to get the facts right.

Spain’s official weather agency AEMET, who on Monday apologized for not warning the people of Navarra about the amount of rainfall they would get during Sunday's downpour, has provided national daily ABC with some very relevant information.

According to the weather agency, the highest temperature ever recorded in Spain was of 47 degrees Celsius, contrary to what many street thermometers lead us to believe during the not so sweltering Spanish summers.

Roadside thermometers, it seems, are poorly designed, or at the very least not correctly positioned.

Whenever the sun’s rays hit these street clocks/thermostats, they heat up much faster than the air surrounding them because of their dark colour and the lack of ventilation within the machine.

Their proximity to the dark scorching pavement also makes their thermostats mark as much as 10 degrees more than the actual temperature.

In fact, according to ABC, they are almost always wrong.

The national newspaper has suggested that information panels would provide us all with a breath of fresh air by displaying temperatures taken from official meteorological sources.

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