MADRID – After a Semana Santa with high temperatures and no rain, it will also remain relatively warm this week, but mainly dry. The mercury will drop briefly on Wednesday and Thursday but rise again on Friday with values around 30ºC, especially in Mediterranean areas.
Remarkably stable weather and high temperatures will continue this Easter Monday, predicts Rubén del Campo, spokesman for the Meteorological Agency (Aemet). On Wednesday, “a front will leave rain in the northern third and cause a marked drop in temperatures.” This will be distributed all over the country between that day and Thursday. Those two days the temperatures are “temporarily” at normal values for this time of year.
However, the thermometers will rise again from Friday, with a warm environment again, especially in the south of the peninsula. There, the mercury will exceed 30ºC in many areas. Moreover, it will also remain dry, with hardly any precipitation.
Calima
Today the highest temperatures on the peninsula are 33º to 34º in places in the valley of the Guadalquivir, such as Seville and Córdoba. It is also warm in the Canary Islands with 32ºC at various points in the south of the islands. However, strong winds are also expected here, especially on the western islands. This wind will carry desert dust, the well-known ‘calima’ in the Canary Islands. Desert dust is also expected over much of the peninsula. Consequently, this will result in deteriorating air quality.
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On Tuesday, the situation will “not substantially” change, with little cloud cover on the peninsula. This is with the exception of Galicia, where rain is expected at the end of the day. There will be strong winds in the north due to the arrival of the front. Temperatures “will not experience major changes”, at most a slight drop in the far southeast. The values will generally be between 5° and 10° above average, even between 10° and 15° in large parts of the southern half.
“Only in coastal areas, due to the effect of the wind, will the thermometers remain at their own values for these dates,” emphasises Del Campo, specifying that in the Guadalquivir Valley they will rise above 32°/33º for another day . Furthermore, it will be over 25° in large parts of the peninsula. Meanwhile, strong to very strong winds are expected again in the Canary Islands, as well as high temperatures and mist.
Wednesday
A weather change will occur on Wednesday due to the arrival of a front that will cross the peninsula from west to east. “It will rain in the northern third of the peninsula and rain is not ruled out in other parts of the northern half. It will only be significant outdoors in Galicia, the Cantabrian communities, northern Navarre and the Pyrenees. In the rest it is most likely just a few drops,” complains the Aemet spokesperson. No rain is expected on the rest of the peninsula. However, in the Canary Islands a thunderstorm is not ruled out.
Normal temperatures in the north
From Wednesday, temperatures will briefly “drop markedly” across most of the peninsula, especially in the northwest, where it could be as low as 8º/10°. In cities such as Burgos, León and Oviedo, the mercury will remain below 15°. The snow level in the northern third drops to 1,000 metres. “We can’t talk about cold, but about normal temperatures,” says the meteorologist.
High or extreme risk of wildfires
In fact, on the eastern side of the peninsula, where the wind from the west and northwest arrives heated, temperatures will rise. In Murcia and Valencia, they will be around 33°/34°. “The risk of fires in the Mediterranean regions will be very high or extreme due to the combination of high temperatures, strong wind gusts and drought,” the expert warns.
Related post: Early forest fires in Spain due to climate change
Thursday
On Thursday it will be cold in the northern half, with even frost in the mountain areas, the northern and central plateau.” In Burgos, Soria, Palencia and Teruel, it may freeze slightly locally and the temperature drop “will be particularly noticeable in the east of the peninsula and in the Balearic Islands. There the thermometers will drop between 8° and 10°. The front may also leave isolated showers in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. In the far north, the sky will be cloudy, where light rain is expected. In the rest, dry weather will prevail in the country, with winds from the west and northwest, which will be intense in the Bay of Biscay, the northeast of the peninsula, the Mediterranean and also in the Canary Islands.
Friday
From Friday and into the weekend, an anticyclone will again become dominant, with stable and dry weather in most of the country. Another front could bring light rain to Galicia and other points in the extreme north. “As early as Friday, temperatures on the peninsula begin to rise until they are clearly back to their usual values for the time of year. That means it will be 30 to 32ºC in the valley of the Guadalquivir in Andalucia. Also in the Canary Islands, they will rise, with strong trade winds.
Apart from the short 48-hour break, the weather will continue this week in the same vein as the first days of April and also March. March was the “second warmest and driest of the 21st century in Spain”. All told, it was the second warmest March on record globally.
Dry trend continues
Aemet’s rain forecasts for the rest of the month are not good, so the drought situation will worsen. The week of April 16-23 is expected to continue the same hot and dry trend, while for the last week of the month it is possible that “the dry and warm character will moderate”.
