On April 10, 1985, at the weather station in Bechet, not far from Calafat, the temperature exceeded 35 degrees Celsius, being the first such temperature in April. What other records were there and when were 44 degrees Celsius in Oltenia?
A temperature with 17 degrees above normal
On April 10, 1985, on the day when there were +35.5 C in Bechet, there were extremely high temperatures in other areas of southern Romania: +34.5 C in Giurgiu and Calafat, +34.2 C at Turnu Măgurele, +33.4 C in Mangalia and +33 C in Alexandria.
The hottest days of April are generally towards the end of the month, so the temperatures of 1985 are all the more special, coming in the first decade of the month of “Prier”.
Then an absolute record of April on Romania was exceeded, a record that had been established 51 years ago. Thus, in April 1934 they were +34.9 C in Alexandria and +34.4 C in Bucharest Filaret.
The oldest heat records in April are from 1899, when they were +33 C in Bârlad, +32 C in Buzău and +32.5 C in Focșani and Galați. The record in Vrancea was equalized in April last year, ie 125 years later. You can read about April records here.
1985 was a year that will remain in history for the terrible winter in Romania, a winter in which there was a lot of snow and in which there were -38 C in the country.
A town with large climatic differences
Bechet is a place with warm summers and moderate winters. It was recorded in July 2007 one of the highest temperatures in Romania: +44.2 C, only three tenths of the absolute national record from Ion Sion.
The hardest wave of cold brought in January 1963 a very rare temperature of -30.5 C. The difference between the absolute minimum and the absolute maximum was almost 75 degrees Celsius.
Bechet is one of the places where the temperature difference between morning and afternoon can be huge. On April 15, 2024, when the maxim was +33.7 C, the minimum morning was 26 degrees lower!
April means capricious weather and large variations. If on April 10, 1985, they were +35.5 C La Bechet, on April 10, 1990, the maximum was only +5.5 C, while in 1997, the morning were -2 C (also on 10).
The difference is huge between an April hot and a cold one, in Bechet: they were April without summer days, but some with 12-13 summer days (days when the maximum passes 25 C).
April has often brought temperatures over 30 C in recent years in the country, in years such as 2012, 2013, 2016, 2018 and 2024. Last year, the second hottest April has been registered since there is complete weather data, and at 16 weather stations have been established absolute temperature records for the fourth month.
The town has 4,300 inhabitants, and the population increased by 19% in ten years.
Bechet is, next to Calafat. One of the two Danube ports of Dolj County. La Bechet there is a border crossing point to Bulgaria (Feribot Bechet-Oryahovo).
The first weather station operated on Bechet since 1955, and seven years later was moved, after a serious flood due to the Danube. The station operated from August 1972 on the present site and can be found at an altitude of 35 m.
In the Bechet area there are large surfaces with sandy soils, but also a large number of lakes that were formed either by the Danube spills or by pluvial accumulations, it is explained in a description published by ANM about the weather station in Oltenia.
The Bechet weather station is managed by the regional meteorological center of Oltenia, a branch of the National Meteorological Administration.
Bechet and some April records
- The lowest absolute temperatures: -4.8 C in 2022 and -4.5 C in 2020
- The highest absolute temperatures: 35.5 C in 1985 and +33.7 C in 2024
- The coolest month April: 8.2 C in 1997
- The hottest Monday April: +16.4 C in 2016 and +15.1 C in 2024
- The hottest April morning: minimum of +14.5 C
- Coastiest April afternoon: Maximum of +3.5 C
- On April 10, 2025 the minimum was -0.5 C, and the maximum, +13.8 C
Photo source: dreamstime.com
