Practically the whole of the Peninsula, except for the north and north-west, will experience today the peak of the first heat wave of the summer, in which maximum temperatures will exceed 44º C. During these days it will also they will produce torrid nights, that is to say, they will not fall below 25ºC, according to the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
The Aemet maps draw for today Tuesday risky situations for outdoor activities due to heat in most of the Peninsula, with a particularly acute danger in the part of Albacete de La Mancha and the lower Ebro , in Teruel, where the warning is at red level. The orange warning extends to Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia, Madrid, Murcia and Lleida. Yesterday, thermometers exceeded 44.5º C in Loja (Granada), 44º C at Granada airport or 43.9º C at Córdoba airport. It is not expected to exceed the maximum reached in Spain so far, recorded in Montoro (Córdoba), with 47.4º C, on August 13, 2021.
In fact, in Spain, the number of days per year with heat waves has increased significantly since 1975: at a rate of about three days per decade. In current summers we face between ten and twelve more days of extreme heat than in the 1980s. In addition, taking into account the number of affected provinces, “we also observe a statistically significant increase in the affected area: the heat waves are gaining in extension, at a rate of 2.7 provinces per decade”, point out Aemet sources.
In this new episode, maximum temperatures will generally exceed 38º C in a large part of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, and will reach 44º C in parts of Andalusia and Aragon. As for the torrid nights, they will take place in areas of the center and south of the peninsula.
The heat wave alert will develop mainly in the southern half of the peninsula and will take place until tomorrow, Wednesday, due to a ridge located in the east of the Peninsula. The origin is the entry of an air mass of Saharan origin, very warm and dry, accompanied by dust in suspension over much of the Peninsula, except in areas of the north-west and north. The Meteorological Service warns that in Catalonia the highest values ??today will be recorded in the regions of Lleida and Garrotxa, where temperatures can exceed 40 or 41º C.
On Wednesday, a drop in temperatures is expected in the north of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, although the southern half will still experience an “extremely warm” environment, 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 is not yet possible to predict whether they will continue into the weekend. On Tuesday, large areas will be around 40º C, and in the southern area of ??the Guadalquivir Valley and in the interior the maximum will reach 45ºC, in the same way as in the central depression of the Ebro and Mallorca, where 43º C can be reached .
Aemet clarified yesterday that this is the first heat wave of the summer, since the warm episode in June has not been considered a heat wave “because the established frameworks of intensity have not been exceeded , geographical extension and persistence”, despite the fact that, 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 in those days, prevented the temperatures from rising as much as planned. The smoke has a screen effect that prevents all solar radiation from reaching the surface.
The global average temperature reached the highest levels in three days on record last week, reaching 17.23°C. The high temperatures are induced by man-made climate change and the El Niño phenomenon, a warming in the equatorial Pacific that affects almost the entire world.
