Riviera Maya, Q.R. — Residents are being told to brace for an even hotter and longer period of Canícula or the Dog Days of summer as the season rapidly approaches. Local meteorologist Luis Antonio Morales Ocaña says that each season, the typical 40-dog days of summer is lasting longer.
Statistically he says, Canicula begins between July 15 and 20, lasting until August, although this year, it could last until September.
Last year, the increased heat began on July 12. During those “dog days”, high temperature records were broke, at least in Playa del Carmen with 36 degrees Celsius. He says 2021 will likely be similar with an early start and hotter days.
“With global warming, records are broken annually. If we look at weather graphs that we keep as statistics, temperatures are rising. They have not decreased. They continue to increase, something that is happening every year all over the world and we are not the exception,” he said.
He specified that this year there are already temperatures of 34 degrees Celsius and a thermal sensation above 40 degrees Celsius, being again, an indication of new heat-setting records.
Morales Ocaña explained that “the heat wave is representative for being the hottest days of the year, because solar radiation arrives perpendicularly in summer, the days are longer and the nights, shorter. That allows solar energy to arrive with more intensity and be stored in areas such as the oceans.”
The meteorologist pointed out that due to global warming, it is lasting longer and statistically begins between July 15 and 20, lasting until August although this year it can last until September.
“With global warming, records are broken annually. If we see weather graphs that we keep as statistics, temperatures are rising, they have not decreased, they continue to increase and this happens every year all over the world and we are not the exception,” he said.
He specified that this year there are already temperatures of 34 degrees Celsius and a thermal sensation above 40 degrees Celsius, being again, an indication of a record.
According to the National Meteorological Service (SMN), Canicula usually begins during the second half of July and affects the central, southern and southeastern states of Mexico including Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Puebla, State of Mexico, Morelos, Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and a portion of San Luis Potosí.
