“This is incredible! You have to live it, the truth is that it cannot be explained! It is tremendous!” exclaimed this afternoon Josep Madern, the mayor of Darnius, the Alt Empordà municipality, which reached 45.1 degrees Celsius around three o’clock, according to data collected by the Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya (SMC).
A record that was also reached some twenty minutes later in Navata, in the same region. Figueres smashed those records shortly after by two tenths. The capital of Alt Empordà today marked the highest temperature in Spain according to the Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET).
To alleviate the unbearable heat, the Darnius City Council has opened the doors of the municipal swimming pool so that residents can cool off for free. A measure that will continue until this Wednesday, when very high temperatures are also expected, although somewhat lower than today’s records.
Madern, 50, explains that since he can remember he has never suffered as much heat as today. “But not an episode of drought as long as the one we are suffering either,” she admits. The City Council is also monitoring the most vulnerable population, which is the one that bears these heatwave episodes the worst.
The residents of this municipality of about 530 inhabitants, according to the municipal register, are not at all used to these values. “I never thought of putting in air conditioning, really; the walls of the house are thick, but today it is unbearable,” explains Núria Guijo in a telephone conversation with La Vanguardia, unable to stop sweating. When she hung up, she took the car in the direction of the Empuriabrava beach where her daughter was going to celebrate her birthday.
The only hairdresser and beautician in town, Anabel Céspedes, offered soft drinks and fresh water as usual to all the customers who entered her business today. The phrase that she has heard the most today and in all cases, snorting, has been: ‘What a horror of heat!’.
Between the irons, the hair dryers, the massages and the wax, in general, Anabel is used to being hot. But today is too much. “It looks like we have hell outside,” she explained this afternoon. Her home, which is above the business, protects it as she can from the heat. “I have all the windows down because if not, I’ll get fire!”
For those who yesterday was not a good day, it was for businesses related to aquatic activities in the swamp. Joaquín González, from the Magic Empordà kayak rental company, had to close early.
“Around 2:00 p.m. we closed because there was only one person left on the beach; in two hours the thermometers went from 38 degrees to 45 degrees,” he explains. For this Wednesday, it is also proposed not to open at the time of greatest sun exposure, between 2 and 5 p.m.
In fact, those who suffer the most from these high temperatures are those who, like Joaquín, do not work indoors, and those who make physical efforts. Juli Luzón, an operator at the window installation company Aluminis Lumiscar, was caught up in Navata on the day the thermometer went wild. “He was standing and sweating; I have never experienced such hot air before,” he explains.
The Darnius y Navata record was 1.3 degrees Celsius higher than the last record reached in Alcarràs (Segrià) in 2019, when the thermometer marked 43.8 degrees. In the regions of Girona today there were other very high records. In English (Jungle) 44’8 have been reached; in La Bisbal d’Empordà, the 43’8; in Santa Coloma de Farners they reached 43’6 and in Banyoles, 44’2 according to the Meteorological Service of Catalonia.
The leading meteorologist for the capital of Pla de l’Estany, Enric Estragués, stated that the 44.2 degrees reached at 2:50 p.m. today is the highest in the last century. “Fire falls from the sky; the breath of a very hot African air mass causes temperatures never seen or experienced in our city”, he affirmed. The last time that Banyoles exceeded 40 degrees was on July 5, 2015. Then the thermometer marked 42.7 degrees.
Data from the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) placed Figueres, with 45.3 degrees, as the hottest municipality in Spain this Tuesday. “When I left the office I couldn’t walk more than 25 meters, I was short of breath… It was the same feeling you have when you open the oven door and are about to remove the tray of cannelloni…”, he explained very graphically Francesc Paneque, a 66-year-old resident of Figueres who lived through and suffered this record temperature yesterday.
“It was as if fire fell from the sky”, adds Víctor Burgas, who compared the contrast between the coolness of his air-conditioned house and the exterior of the garden with the same sensation that one can experience when entering a sauna.
