WEATHER – A heatwave with temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius is approaching, and will reach Spain on Thursday. Until then, an unusual and intense period of heat will already dominate large parts of the country. The intensity is only greater from Thursday.
As of Thursday, the thermometers will even rise above 40 degrees in some parts of the southern peninsula. Temperatures have already started to rise since Sunday 5 June. Those increases will last for the next few days. And will sometimes reach values of between 5-10 degrees higher than normal for this time of year during the day. That said Ruben del Campo, spokesman for the meteorological agency Aemet. He added that his meteorologists also expect tropical nights with minimums not falling below 20 degrees Celsius.
More than 40 degrees Celsius
From Thursday, maximum temperatures in a large part of the country will already exceed 35 degrees. Areas in the centre and south of the country, will be warmer than 38 degrees. And for the coming weekend, the mercury is expected to regularly reach above 40 degrees Celsius. This will mainly be in the areas where this heat is common, such as in the valleys of the Guadiana in Extremadura and the Guadalquivir in Andalucia.
Tropical nights
In fact, according to Del Campo, it will be warm in the early morning hours, with tropical nights starting Thursday on the Mediterranean coast, the southern half of the country, the centre, and in the Ebro Basin.
The cause of this “warm and unusual episode” is a combination of factors: on the one hand, there is a mass of warm, subtropical air, along with high-pressure areas both on the surface and in the higher levels of the troposphere. From here descending movements of that air occur, which cause heating and moisture loss.
Longest days
Moreover, June is the month in which the sun is very high above the horizon, causing the surface to warm up a lot. Because there will be hardly any clouds, the radiation from that sun is even warmer during the maximum number of hours as the longest day of the year approaches.
How long this heatwave in Spain will last is still ‘uncertain’, according to Rubén Del Campo, but the mercury will likely start to fall again from Sunday or Monday.
Also read: More air conditioners needed to cope with rising temperatures in Spain
