The first episode of intense heat this summer will expand its extension and intensity this Saturday, since six autonomous communities and, in particular, several provinces in the southwest of the peninsula will have notice due to a significant risk of very high temperatures, which will reach 40 degrees Celsius (ºC). or they will surpass them.
In general, temperatures will be significantly high this Saturday in the southwestern quadrant, Galicia and Ampurdán and strong winds will blow in the Strait.
Specifically, the significant risk (orange warning) will affect Córdoba, Huelva, Jaén, Seville and Badajoz this Saturday, where they will exceed the 40ºC barrier. In addition, the provinces of Gerona, Orense, Madrid, Ciudad Real, Toledo, Cáceres, where the mercury will be between 36 and 39ºC, will have a yellow warning (risk).
In addition to the risk of high maximum temperatures, Cádiz for its part will have important warnings for coastal phenomena, since it will have a Levante wind of 62 to 74 kilometers per hour (force 8) in the area around Tarifa and offshore south of Trafalgar. Cádiz will also have a yellow warning for easterly winds with gusts of up to 80 kilometers per hour.
The day will be marked by stability in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands and there will be a predominance of slightly cloudy or clear skies and dry weather, except for some intervals of low clouds around the Strait and Alborán, as well as in Galicia, the Cantabrian area, high Ebro, Pyrenees and coasts of Catalonia.
In the afternoon, intervals of clouds of diurnal evolution are expected in the main mountainous systems of the center and north of the peninsula. In the Canary Islands, intervals of low clouds will be recorded in the north of the islands of greater relief, with a low probability of some drizzle.
The AEMET does not rule out haze in the extreme southwest of the peninsula, as well as morning mists and fog banks in the north of Galicia, western Asturias and the upper Ebro.
Temperatures will rise in a practically general way in the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, with more pronounced rises in the maximum in areas of the north and northwest of the peninsula. The exception will be the minimums in the Balearic Islands and Levante where slight decreases will predominate.
In this sense, the AEMET specifies that it is expected to exceed 35ºC in the southwestern quadrant and center of the peninsula, and it is likely to reach 40ºC in the Guadalquivir and in the Extremaduran channel of the Guadiana. The minimums will not drop below 20ºC in areas of the Mediterranean coasts and the southwest quadrant. In the Canary Islands, temperatures will tend to drop.
The wind will blow strongly from the east and with very strong gusts in the Strait, and with strong intervals in Alborán. In the Ampurdán, the north wind will blow, which will subside, while it will come from the east in the Cantabrian Sea, the coasts of the southeast of the peninsula and Galicia, tending in the latter case to roll to the west. The Canary Islands will maintain the trade wind regime while in the interior of the Peninsula the wind will be variable from the east and breezes will predominate.
Just as it happens in winter with extreme cold, excessive heat can be very harmful to health, especially for people with previous problems and also for cardiovascular patients: heat makes the heart beat faster than the arteries and veins dilate, effects that even cause death.
Alberto Cecconi, cardiologist at the Hospital de la Princesa and adviser to the group that investigates climate change at the Spanish Society of Cardiology (SEC) and the Spanish Heart Foundation (FEC), maintains in an interview with EFE that around 3 percent of the excess deaths registered in Spain are related to excess heat, a figure that worldwide is 1%.
Last year, heat waves caused slightly more than 4,300 deaths in our country, but if measures are not taken, it is estimated that these data could triple to 13,000 deaths in 2050.
The cardiologist remembers that this excess of deaths is calculated taking into account the general population, also counting healthy people. “If we were to focus on the excess deaths of people who already have heart disease or who are simply older, these numbers of deaths increase much more,” explains the doctor.
Alberto Cecconi explains that the first of the effects of heat is dehydration. “The possibility of blood coagulation increases and there is a greater tendency to solidify and form thrombi,” says the doctor, who adds that this can cause strokes or heart attacks.
Other effects are that thermal stress also increases the fragility of the cholesterol plaque and the loss of mineral salts through sweating, and also increases arrhythmias and oxygen consumption.
And although it is difficult to quantify, not only the dead rise but also the sick who visit the emergency room. “Cardiac patients suffer more episodes of fluid retention, heart failure at the lung level, respiratory distress, arrhythmias…”, says the doctor.
Other factors such as air pollution also have an impact on cardiovascular health. “In Spain there are 30,000 deaths a year from air pollution. In the coming years, mortality will not only increase due to heat or cold, but also due to contamination, that is, the cocktail is even more dangerous”.
Patients are recommended to hydrate, drink water, avoid sugary drinks, avoid exposure to heat, use air conditioning, but cardiologists also ask governments to create cities with environments where you can live in a healthy way and where there are places trees that help to soften the temperature during the summer.
“We have to ask patients to take care of themselves but our discourse must be a little broader. What can we do, how can we protect ourselves, what measures can each of us take? We are completely interconnected to people, animals, our environment”, says the doctor, who warns that climate change has consequences in terms of health.
The doctor recalls that leading a healthy lifestyle is not just about having fun or playing sports: “We are the exercise we do, the food we eat, the air we breathe and the environment in which we move.”
This cardiologist explains that doctors have been becoming aware of this link between health and environmental factors and now seeks to communicate this problem to both citizens and institutions, for which a study group has been formed that seeks solid data serve as the basis for action.
