The summer of 2023 is registering, both in Spain and in the rest of the planet, abnormally high temperatures, even above what usually occurs at this time of year, which constitutes one of the most direct signs of climate change, according to the scientists. The northern hemisphere lives a new week with heat waves, one of “the deadliest dangers associated with warming,” according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). High temperatures in Europe last summer caused more than 60,000 deaths, according to a recent study.
Southern Europe is facing a new warm episode that is going to be especially pronounced in Italy, Greece and Spain.
Thirteen Spanish communities continue this Tuesday on alert for very high temperatures, a situation that will have a special incidence in Aragon, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, where there is a red warning (extreme risk) for values ??that will reach up to 43 degrees.
As in Morocco and other Mediterranean countries, it is possible that records for maximum temperatures will be broken again today.
The situation is the result of a powerful anticyclone that embraces the entire central and western area of ??the Mediterranean basin and that drives very warm air from North Africa to the northern shore. It remains to be seen if temperatures rise above the record 48.8°C measured in Sicily in August 2021, which is the highest measured so far in Europe.
The extreme weather does not let up. Italy suffered such exceptionally high temperatures and humidity levels on Sunday that its weather service ILMeteo.it described the situation as a “heat storm”. In France, seven southern departments are on orange heat wave alert for today, Météo-France announced.
The Moroccan meteorological service has been issuing red alerts due to the forecast that temperatures will be between 45ºC and 47ºC, especially in the southern provinces.
Meteorological services are forecasting above-normal temperatures in the Mediterranean region for at least the next two weeks, as temperatures of up to 5°C above the climatic average are expected. Mediterranean temperatures will be exceptionally high in the coming days and weeks, exceeding 30°C in some parts and more than 4°C above average in much of the western Mediterranean.
Spain will have the second heat wave of the summer, and temperatures above 40ºC are expected in large areas. They could even be between 42ºC and 44ºC in the Aragonese section of the Ebro valley, regions of the central depression of Lleida, Empordà regions, inland Mallorca and the Guadalquivir Valley.
The highest temperatures were recorded yesterday in Arroyo del Ojanco and Linares (43.9ºC, Jaén), as well as at the Granada airport (43.7ºC). In Spain, the week will be marked by torrid nights, with lows above 25ºC, something that would happen not only in parts of the Mediterranean coast, but also 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 forecast for this week will be “unusual” in many areas, especially in the case of daytime, according to Rubén del Campo, spokesperson for Aemet.
Del Campo has stressed that the temperatures forecast for the first half of the week will be among the 5% of the warmest recorded for these dates in the center, east and south of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands compared to that of the 1991-2020 period.
Numerous areas of Spain have activated orange alerts, which imply significant danger due to heat, and even red level warnings for extreme danger in regions of Andalusia, Aragon, Catalonia (central depression of Lleida and the Empordà) and the Balearic Islands.
Today will be a very warm day 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 northeast.
In addition, high pressures favor a situation of atmospheric stability, so the sun “shines with hardly any obstacles in the form of clouds,” according to Del Campo. In Spain, the warm air mass could be accompanied by suspended dust, which will worsen air quality.
“Exceptionally high temperatures in the subtropics are the main meteorological origin of the widespread heat wave over the Mediterranean,” said Omar Baddour, WMO head of climate monitoring. 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–, and which is already underway, and climate change are two of the elements that must be studied. the climatologists.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that by 2050, about half of the European population may face high or very high risk of summer heat stress.
In fact, intense heat is taking over much of the Northern Hemisphere. From Florida to California to Texas, much of the United States found itself again on Sunday under the effects of a heat wave described as “oppressive” by weather services.
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 southern California, several fires have devastated more than 3,000 ha 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 Wildland Fire Center. Japan issued heatstroke warnings on Sunday for millions of people living in 20 of its 47 prefectures.
China broke a temperature record for mid-July this Sunday, with 52.2°C registered in the arid region of Xinjiang (west), according to the country’s meteorological services.
Typhoon Talim made landfall in the Chinese province of Guangdong (southeast) on Monday night and did so again this Tuesday as a tropical storm off the coast of Guangxi, the China Meteorological Center (CMC) reported.
