Cuba reaches 40 degrees Celsius temperature for the second time in its history

Cuba reached this Tuesday for the second time in its history, and in the span of just one month, a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius.

The registration took place in the municipality Bolivia, in the province of Ciego de Avila, according to sources from the Institute of Meteorology (INSMET) of Cuba.

The specialist Bryam Pérez Valdés detailed on Facebook that the Automatic weather station located in that Avilanian municipality marked a maximum temperature of 40 degrees Celsius on the afternoon of May 14.

Added to these values is that the stations in that province located in Primero de Enero and Falla scored 37.8 and 36.8, respectively.

In addition to Ciego de Ávila, other provinces in the country left high records this Tuesday.

This is the case of the meteorological station of Camagüey, which for the second time in May broke the maximum temperature record for that territory by reaching 37.3 degrees. The previous one had been on May 11 with a record of 37.0.

The same has happened in Villa Clara, which in recent days has also broken its own temperature record.

The dramatic thing is that such temperatures take place in the midst of an agony of blackouts that have Cubans desperate, seeing how more than a month before the official start of summer, the energy situation is only getting worse.

Jucarito's record, in Granma

It was last April 11 that the Jucarito meteorological station, in the Granma province, set an absolute record for maximum temperature in Cuba by marking 40.1 degrees Celsius.

That was the first time since meteorological records began that a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius was reported in Cuba.

That value exceeded the maximum record that had been in Cuba until that moment, which was 39.7 degrees, curiously implemented on April 12, but in 2020, just four years ago. In that case, the record had been established at the Veguitas meteorological station, also in the Granma province.

According to the Climate Center of the Institute of Meteorology (INSMET), March 2024 has been the warmest in Cuba when taking as reference the highest temperature recorded.

Last year temperatures also experienced an increase and July 2023 became the hottest month in Cuba since 1951.

During that period, an average temperature of 29.1 degrees Celsius was recorded, even higher than the 29.04 °C in August 2020, one of the warmest in recent years. The average temperature remained above 29.0 degrees, reaching a maximum peak of 29.76 on the 17th.

In July 2023, in fact, 17 maximum temperature records were established in Cuba.

According to studies by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), projections for the country in the face of the effects of global warming predict that the increase in the average annual temperature will be above one degree Celsius in 2030 and will be 3.5 degrees. in 2070, taking the period 1961-1990 as a reference.

These estimates exceed the 1.5 established by the international community to combat climate change, an increase set in the Paris Agreement as a limit to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of global climate variation on the planet.