The forecast has come true, and the Córdoba airport has reached 38.7 ºC this Thursday; They are 4.7 ºC more than its previous record, which was 34 ºC for a month of April (April 18, 2017). It's further evidence that this unusually warm episode could translate to the hottest April days since at least 1950 and could push thermometers to 40 degrees for the first time this year.
The current episode of "exceptionally high temperatures" more typical of the beginning of summer than of the final stretch of April brought this Thursday the first warning for heat of the year in Spain, specifically in the Cordoba countryside, where the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet ) forecast temperatures of at least 38 degrees.
The Aemet prediction indicated that there was a yellow warning - risk for outdoor activities - for this Thursday between 12:00 and 20:00 in that area of Córdoba, the first that has received such consideration so far this year in Spain.
This forecast has come true because the Córdoba airport registered 38.7 degrees at 5:10 p.m., which represents a new record for the hottest day in April in the Cordoba capital since 1959, the year in which the historical series of temperatures began in that place.
One of the aspects that certify this anomalous summer in April is that the first day with a warning for heat does not usually arrive so soon (June 1, 2010, May 12, 2014, June 8, 2016, May 25, 2017, June 17, 2018, May 31, 2019, May 22, 2020, May 16, 2021, and May 17, 2022, for example).
This unusually warm episode could translate to the hottest days in April since at least 1950 and could push thermometers to 40 degrees for the first time this year.
This situation is due to "the arrival of a mass of very warm air from low latitudes that will travel across North Africa" before reaching Spain, according to Rubén del Campo, AEMET spokesman, who added: "It will also help The situation of atmospheric stability and the strong insolation of the sun, which is high on the horizon and heats up strongly on these dates if the skies are clear, can reach such high temperatures".
The African heat peak arrives this Thursday and this Friday, with "temperatures typical of the end of June", when the values could be between 10 and 15 degrees above normal for this time of year. “The episode will be so intense that, with the forecast currently available, it is likely that every day between April 25 and 30 (inclusive) will be record warm days: they could be the warmest days for those dates since, at least , 1950”, highlights Aemet.
The episode of heat typical of the month of July that is affecting Spain this last week of April and that will not end until Sunday, May 1, has pulverized fifty records for maximum or minimum temperatures in a large part of the country, a phenomenon that it has a recurrence period of once every 150 or 200 years, according to meteorologists from eltiempo.es
At a press conference, the meteorologist Mar Gómez explained that the factors that favor these high values are the stability on the surface due to the anticyclone, which inhibits the formation of clouds and prevents the development of precipitation, which gives rise to a High insolation, with clear skies, a high rate of solar radiation and a very high or extreme risk of fire in a large part of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands.
"This stability does not encounter any obstacles," Gómez points out, explaining how a sum of factors causes an overheating of the air mass that can be compared to "an oven" that has triggered temperatures to record values.
For now, until Wednesday afternoon "more than 20 records" of maximum temperatures in April have been broken, such as at the Córdoba airport, where it reached 35 degrees Celsius (ºC), when the previous record was 34ºC. In Jerez de la Frontera, which has data from 1946, its old record was exceeded by more than one degree and records of very high minimum temperatures have also been recorded, such as at the Zaragoza and Lugo airports.
Both stations, which have data from the 1940s and 1950s respectively, recorded a minimum of 15.9ºC in Zaragoza and 14.2ºC in Lugo. "They are not tropical nights but they are records," insisted the meteorologist who hopes that this Thursday and Friday there will be minimum temperatures that will not drop below 20ºC.
Precisely, within the framework of this episode, he foresees that this Thursday and Friday will be the warmest days of the week with maximums that will "easily" reach 37ºC in Córdoba; that will exceed 30ºC in a large part of the peninsular interior, in areas of the northern plateau and in the Ebro valley.
On Friday they will rise again, although in fewer areas, but they may also lose "some degrees" in Extremadura, the Cantabrian Sea, in the east of the Peninsula, in the Balearic Islands, Galicia and on the northern plateau. However, they will once again see 37ºC in the Guadalquivir valley and 36ºC in La Mancha, Albacete.
As of Saturday, a "thermal relief" will arrive in the west of the Peninsula and in points of the extreme north, but they will rise in the Mediterranean, where, for example, in Murcia they can reach 37ºC.
The meteorologist predicts that the "most important" and almost general drop will come on Sunday, when it will go above 30ºC in the interior of the peninsula to 25ºC. "It is a much more bearable value", commented Gómez who, however, points out that they will continue to exceed 30ºC in Extremadura, Andalusia or Murcia.
But this relief in temperatures will be temporary because it is expected that they will rebound significantly on Tuesday, but not as much as this week.
"This heat is more typical of the months of July than of the end of April. And we are also noticing it at night. The minimums in some towns do not drop below 20ºC," he indicated.
