Spain reaches its highest temperatures of the year. For the second time this spring, the thermometers are soaring. The Almonte (Huelva) weather station reached yesterday, at 3:20 p.m., the highest temperature measured so far in Spain this year, with 39.9ºC. The stations of Morón de la Frontera (39.6ºC), in the province of Seville, and El Granado, with 39.2ºC, in Huelva, have also exceeded 39ºC. This town already widely exceeded on Thursday the 38.7ºC that was observed on April 27 at the Córdoba airport and that marked the new record for the hottest day in April in Spain since the historical series of temperatures began in that place.
And the forecast indicates that these temperatures can equal or even exceed the weekend in the Peninsula, where notable contrasts in the weather situation are expected.
On the one hand, there will be intense heat in the southwest of the peninsula (it can reach 40ºC) and all of this will be combined with tropical nights on the Mediterranean coasts and areas of the south and center, and storms in the north with the possibility of arriving with hail.
"The weekend will be marked by heat, with maximum temperatures that could be around 38ºC to 40ºC in the Guadalquivir valley," explains Rubén del Campo, spokesman for the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), in statements collected by La Vanguard.
At the same time, storms are expected in the northern half of the peninsula that "both on Saturday and Sunday could be locally strong and be accompanied by hail," adds Del Campo. The Aemet spokesman added that this unstable weather in the north, with showers, will continue until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, although "high pressures will probably prevail afterwards and temperatures will tend to rise, with an environment that could be very hot in large areas of the country," he said.
Badajoz, Córdoba and Seville will mark the hottest times over the weekend.
The Aemet keeps the yellow notices activated for this Saturday – risk for outdoor activities – due to intense heat in five provinces of the southern peninsula. Today it is expected that 39ºC will be reached in the Cordovan countryside and in the Guadalquivir valley in Jaén, while the forecast is that it will reach 38ºC in Las Vegas del Guadiana (Badajoz), the Sevillian countryside and Sierra Morena. This Saturday, Badajoz, Córdoba and Seville, as well as other towns in the Guadalquivir valley, will be around 38ºC to 40ºC. The heat will intensify in the eastern half of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands. And tropical nights arrive in the Mediterranean, that is, when the thermometers do not drop below 20ºC.
The thermometers will mark 34ºC or 35ºC in the Ebro depression, large areas of the center and south of the Peninsula, and even points in Mallorca. In those areas, temperatures on Saturday will be between 5ºC and 10ºC above normal for the time of year.
In the opposite direction, in the north, atmospheric instability will increase (in the triangle formed by the Álava plain, Teruel and the Girona Pyrenees), which will translate into more frequent showers and storms in the afternoon and which locally could be strong and be accompanied by hail, especially in mountainous environments and their vicinity.
On Sunday, this weather picture will hardly change. The early morning would be warm again on the shores of the Mediterranean, the southern half and the central peninsular area, and in the afternoon it will exceed 34ºC in the central depression of the Ebro, large parts of La Mancha, Extremadura and Andalusia.
Córdoba will reach 38ºC; Ciudad Real, Toledo and Zaragoza will reach 35ºC, and Madrid will stay at 33ºC. "We will continue talking about heat, perhaps not as intense as in the two previous days, but, of course, a hot environment," Del Campo added.
And, on the contrary, the precipitations will appear from the early hours in the Cantabrian communities and there could be showers in the mountains of the eastern interior of the peninsula.
Monday and Tuesday of next week will be days with similar weather, again marked by the possibility of showers and storms in large areas of the northern and eastern half of the peninsula. The atmosphere will already be more typical of the time of year or even somewhat cooler than usual in interior points.
"We will continue with tropical nights, in which it will not drop below 20ºC on the shores of the Mediterranean and in points of the southern half and central zone," stressed Del Campo. It will exceed 30ºC or 32ºC in areas of the east, center and south of the Peninsula, as well as in the Balearic Islands, where 35ºC can be measured.
