Spain: New heat wave reaches temperatures of up to 43°C

The new one heat wave that whips Spainthe fourth of the summer, enters its most critical phase, with a start to the week that today keeps thirteen autonomous communities on alert, due to temperatures of up to 43°C.

Today and tomorrow, Tuesday, will foreseeably be the peak days of these high temperatures, which already arrive in the final stretch of the month of August, with an episode of heat wave that will last at least until Thursday, according to the latest special notice from the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) on adverse phenomena, published this Monday.

Today, according to predictions, temperatures will continue to rise in the northwestern half of the peninsula and in the Balearic Islands.

The thermal rise will continue tomorrow in the northwest quadrant and in the Cantabrian Sea, while there will be hardly any variations or a slight decrease in the rest of the country.

During these two days, according to Aemet, it is quite probable that 40°C will be reached or exceeded in large areas of the southwestern and northeastern quadrants of the peninsula.

The temperatures will also be suffocating, with 36-39°C, in the rest of the interior of the peninsula, Mallorca and the south of Galicia.

In addition to the effects on health, the high temperatures will also raise the risk of fire these days to extreme levels in a large part of the country.

Faced with these forecasts of so much heat and risk to health, Civil Protection and Emergencies have insisted that citizens protect themselves and exercise extreme caution in their activities, in addition to avoiding setting fires in the mountains.

Today, except for the south of Galicia, the Cantabrian Sea, the Mediterranean coast and the southeast of Andalusia, the heat wave keeps Andalusia, Aragon, both Castillas, Catalonia (also due to strong storms), Extremadura, Madrid, Navarra on orange alert and La Rioja.

In the yellow level, with a slightly lower risk than the previous one, also due to heat, are: Mallorca (Balearic Islands), the north of Valencia (Valencian Community), Ourense (south of Galicia) and the Basque province of Álava.

In the southwest of Andalusia, the Aemet forecast is that up to 43°C will be reached today in the Guadalquivir valley, in Jaén, and also in the Cordoba countryside.

In addition, in that community temperatures between 37° and 42°C will be recorded in a good part of the Andalusian provinces of Cádiz, Córdoba, Huelva, Jaén and Seville, while 41°C will be reached in Madrid and in areas of Aragón, as well as in Ciudad Real (Castilla-La Mancha).

In Catalonia, Girona and Lleida are especially on alert, today the maximum will reach 40°C and there will also be storms that may be accompanied by hail or showers, also in Barcelona.

Also in Extremadura today the threshold of 40°C will be exceeded in both provinces, with highs of 42°C in some areas.

On Wednesday the thermal rise in the Cantabrian Sea will continue due to the entry of a southerly component wind, and there will be hardly any changes in the rest of the country or in any case, a slight drop in temperatures, according to the latest Aemet prediction.

An unstable atmosphere is likely that day with showers and storms in areas of the interior of the peninsula, especially the northern half.

As early as Thursday, a thermal decrease could begin in the western third of the peninsula, according to Aemet’s predictions, although it will not be until the weekend.

Source: EFE