The summer of 2023 is registering, both in Spain and the rest of the planet, abnormally high temperatures, even above what usually occurs at this time of the year, which is one of the most direct signs of change climate, according to scientists. The northern hemisphere is living a new week with heat waves, one of the “deadliest dangers associated with warming”, as recalled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Last summer, high temperatures in Europe caused more than 60,000 deaths, according to a recent study.
Southern Europe is facing a new warm episode that will be particularly pronounced in Italy, Greece and Spain. As in Morocco and other Mediterranean countries, it is possible that the maximum temperature records will be broken again this Tuesday.
The situation is the result of a powerful anticyclone that embraces the entire central and western area of ??the Mediterranean basin and that pushes very warm air coming from North Africa to the north shore. It remains to be seen if temperatures will rise above the record of 48.8°C measured in this region in Sicily in August 2021.
The extreme weather gives no respite. Italy suffered from such exceptionally high temperatures and humidity levels on Sunday that its weather service iLMeteo.it described the situation as a “heat storm”.
The Moroccan meteorological service has been issuing red alerts in view of the forecast that temperatures will be between 45°C and 47°C, especially in the southern provinces.
Weather services are predicting above-normal temperatures in the Mediterranean region for at least the next two weeks, with temperatures of up to 5°C above the climate average expected. Mediterranean temperatures will be exceptionally high over the coming days and weeks, exceeding 30°C in some parts and more than 4°C above average across much of the western Mediterranean.
Spain will predictably experience the second heat wave of the summer, and temperatures above 40ºC are expected in large areas. Even, they could be between 42ºC and 44ºC in the Aragonese section of the Ebro valley, districts of the central depression of Lleida, districts of Empordà, the interior of Mallorca and the Guadalquivir valley.
The highest temperatures were recorded yesterday in Arroyo del Ojanco and Linares (43.9ºC, Jaén), as well as at Granada airport (43.7ºC). In Spain, the week will be marked by torrid nights, with minimums above 25ºC, a fact that would happen not only in parts of the Mediterranean coast but in large cities in the interior of the peninsula.
Despite the fact that the period between July 15 and August 15 is the warmest of the year, the intensity of the high temperatures expected for this week will be “unusual” in many areas, especially in the case of during the day, according to Rubén del Campo, spokesperson for Aemet.
Numerous areas of Spain have activated orange alerts, which imply significant danger due to the heat, and even red level warnings for extreme danger in regions of Andalusia, Aragon, Catalonia (in the regions of the central depression of Lleida and the ‘Empordà) and the Balearic Islands. This Tuesday will be very warm in the center and east of the peninsula and in the Balearic Islands, with values ??between 5ºC and 10ºC above normal and, even, between 10ºC and 15ºC above in the north-east.
In addition, high pressure favors a situation of atmospheric stability, which is why the sun “shine almost unobstructed in the form of clouds”, according to Del Campo. In Spain, the warm air mass could be accompanied by suspended dust, which will worsen the air quality.
“The exceptionally high temperatures in the subtropical regions are the main meteorological origin of the widespread heat wave over the Mediterranean,” said Omar Baddour, head of climate monitoring at the WMO. The possible relationship of all this with El Niño – a cyclical warming phenomenon that begins in the equatorial Pacific with involvement in a large part of the planet -, which is already underway, and climate change are two of the elements that must study climatologists.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that, by 2050, approximately half of the European population may face a high or very high risk of heat stress in summer.
In fact, intense heat is taking over much of the northern hemisphere. From Florida to California to Texas, much of the United States was once again under the effects of a heat wave described as “oppressive” by weather services on Sunday. In Death Valley, California, one of the hottest places on the planet, the thermometer read 51°C on Saturday night and was expected to reach 54°C in the following hours.
In Southern California, several very violent fires, still ongoing, have destroyed more than 3,000 hectares and caused the evacuation of the population.
In Canada, 10 million hectares have already burned, with 906 fires still active, including 570 considered out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Center on Wildfires. Japan issued sunstroke warnings on Sunday for millions of residents in 20 of its 47 prefectures.
China broke a mid-July temperature record this Sunday, with 52.2°C recorded in the arid region of Xinjiang (west), according to the country’s meteorological services.
