Virtually the entire Peninsula, except for the north and northwest, will experience today the peak of the first heat wave of the summer, in which maximum temperatures will exceed 44ºC. During these days there will also be torrid nights, that is, they will not drop below 25ºC, according to the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
The Aemet maps draw for today, Tuesday, risk situations for outdoor activities due to heat in most of the Peninsula, with a particularly pronounced danger in La Mancha, Albacete, and the lower Ebro in Teruel, where the warning is level red. The orange warning extends to Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia, Madrid, Murcia and Lleida. The thermometers yesterday exceeded 44.5ºC in Loja (Granada), 44ºC at the Granada airport or 43.9ºC at the Córdoba airport. It is not expected that the maximum reached in Spain so far, registered in Montoro (Córdoba), with 47.4ºC, will be exceeded on August 13, 2021.
In fact, in Spain, the number of days a year under heat waves has increased significantly since 1975: at a rate of about three days per decade. In today’s summers we are faced with ten to twelve more days of extreme heat than in the 1980s. In addition, considering the number of affected provinces, “we also observe a statistically significant increase in the affected area: heat waves are gaining in extension at a rate of 2.7 provinces per decade,” say Aemet sources.
In this new episode, the maximum temperatures will generally exceed 38ºC in a large part of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, and will reach 44ºC in points of Andalusia and Aragon. As for the torrid nights, they will take place in areas of the center and the south of the peninsula.
The heat wave alert will take place mainly in the southern half of the peninsula and will take place until tomorrow, Wednesday July 12, due to a ridge located to the east of the Peninsula. The origin is the entry of an air mass, of Saharan origin, very hot and dry, accompanied by suspended dust to a good part of the Peninsula, except for areas in the northwest and north. The Meteorological Service warns that in Catalonia the highest values ??will be registered today in the regions of Lleida and La Garrotxa, where they can exceed 40ºC or 41ºC.
On Wednesday a drop in temperatures is expected in the north of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, although an “extremely hot” environment will still be experienced in the southern half, with 40ºC in the Guadalquivir valley and up to 44ºC in Andalusia and Murcia.
However, temperatures could continue to rise from the middle of the week in southern Spain, although it cannot yet be predicted whether they will continue over the weekend. This Tuesday, large areas will be around 40ºC, while in the southern part of the Guadalquivir valley and inland the maximum will reach 45ºC, as in the central depression of the Ebro and Mallorca, where 43ºC can be reached.
The Aemet clarified yesterday that this is the first heat wave of the summer. since the warm episode of June has not been considered a heat wave “since it did not exceed the established frameworks in intensity, geographical extension and persistence”, although, as he pointed out, it was “very close to being a heat wave due to its intensity”. The thresholds were not reached because the smoke from the fires in Canada, very present those days, prevented temperatures from rising as much as expected. The smoke has a screen effect that prevents all solar radiation from reaching the surface.
The global average temperature last week reached its highest levels in three days of records to stand at 17.23°C. The high temperatures are driven by human-induced climate change and the El Niño phenomenon, a warming in the equatorial Pacific with impacts on nearly the entire globe.
