MADRID – It has remained very warm in Spain, but in the coming days the country will have to deal with maximums of 33 degrees Celsius. That means thermometers indicate temperatures between 5 and 10 degrees above normal for this time of year. That is abnormally hot.
These are values more normal for the beginning or end of summer than at the end of October. In addition, people in many Spanish areas have to deal with tropical nights. For this, the temperature does not drop below 20 degrees. It will also be unusually warm elsewhere in Europe. In Spain, only the northwest of the peninsula is protected from the abnormal heat. Moreover, this is thanks in part to a front with a lot of rain.
Weather patterns are disrupted
An occasional warm day in October isn’t too bad. However, it has been abnormally hot for weeks in a row, according to meteorologists. They see that weather patterns are disrupted so that the weather stays the same for a longer period. Because the poles are warming faster than the rest of the planet as a result of the climate crisis, the temperature differences between the poles and the equator – normally the engine of the jet stream – are smaller, so that those fast winds blow differently at about 10 kilometres higher with As a result, the same thing lingers longer.
High-pressure area stops Atlantic storms
It is not only in Spain that it is getting hot, countries such as France are also seeing the mercury approaching 30ºC. The high-pressure area with warm air also prevents the Atlantic storms from approaching the peninsula, limiting the most abundant rain to northwestern Spain.
Mercury rises above 30ºC
On the other hand, warm winds come from the south, bringing “unusually high” temperatures in mid-autumn. Some values, even “very unusual”, reports Aemet, in the northern and southern thirds of the peninsula and the Mediterranean region. These temperatures will exceed 30ºC and 32ºC in the Guadalquivir Valley or inland Mediterranean regions and Mallorca. This entire episode is accompanied by tropical nights where the temperature doesn’t drop below 20ºC.
Wednesday and Thursday are the hottest
Wednesday and Thursday will be warmest with temperatures up to 5 or 10 degrees above normal in much of the country and even more than 10 degrees above normal in areas in the eastern interior of the peninsula. “It will be a very, very warm environment, with many locations reaching a maximum of 28 or 30ºC,” emphasises the AEMET spokesperson.
Tropical nights
The nights will also be extremely warm for this time of year: 5 to 10 degrees Celsius above normal, and tropical nights are expected in points on the Mediterranean such as Barcelona, Almería, Cádiz or Málaga
On Wednesday and Thursday, temperatures indicate values ”more typical of early or late summer than for late October”.
