Saturday morning thunderstorms discharged strongly offshore and those that hit land left intense downpours. In Baix Penedès, it discharged with great intensity and the showers were torrential. In El Vendrell, for example, they accumulated 146 l/m², 137 l/m² in Torredembarra and 109 l/m² in Calafell.

We are starting a stormy Saturday, but not throughout the territory. Thunderstorms are discharging strongly offshore and are reaching land. In fact, heavy showers and intense thunderstorms are expected between the central coast and the Costa Daurada. These showers will be intense and can accumulate 30 mm in just under half an hour, with significant accumulations, which have already reached up to 100 mm in a few hours. In Baix Penedès, it has discharged with great intensity and the showers have been torrential. In El Vendrell, for example, they have accumulated 129 mm and 113 mm in Torredembarra.

Eleven people have been injured to varying degrees due to the torrential rains that fell last night and this morning, flooding streets, campsites, car parks, and underpasses in the north of Tarragonès and Baix Penedès. The episode, which also caused road and rail line closures, was declared over at 4 p.m. and exceeded the Generalitat's forecasts. The latter did not send any alert to the population via ES-Alert, presumably because the intensity of the downpours predicted for those hours was lower. The most serious incident occurred in Roda de Berà (Tarragonès): around two in the morning, the wall of a house on the town's promenade collapsed, trapping three people, who are from the same family.

The approach of a cold air trough at high altitude has generated significant atmospheric instability and has already contributed to a drop in temperature. The strong contrast between the cold air at high altitude and the warm Mediterranean mass generated powerful clouds and the storms discharged with force, with some downpours and violent phenomena, such as strong gusts of wind, hail and sleet. The most affected regions were the central coast, the pre-coast and the northeast, with violent phenomena in Anoia, Alt Penedès, Baix Llobregat and the two Vallesos. You can follow the episode at this link:

The heat has ended with the arrival of a cold air mass. Temperatures of 40°C will no longer be repeated and the thermometer will drop, but this will be from tomorrow, with a noticeable cooling in high altitudes and inland, especially on Friday and over the weekend. On the coast, this Thursday, we will still suffer from sultriness due to increased humidity and a cloudier sky.

The heat will still be intense, especially in the interior of the country, where it will exceed 39°C again and could reach up to 40°C in the Lleida plain and the interior of the Ebro valley (and we will already have more than twenty days with such extreme values). The meteorological situation offers no respite regarding temperature due to the warm air mass from North Africa.

The heat will continue to be intense, especially in the interior of the country, where temperatures will again exceed 38°C in the Lleida plain or in the interior of the Ebro valley. The meteorological situation offers no respite in terms of temperature due to the warm air mass coming from North Africa. This dry tropical mass will again generate temperatures above average and will cause heat peaks of up to 40°C in Ponent and Ebre between Tuesday and Thursday. In fact, we have already had 19 days in Catalonia with temperatures equal to or higher than 40°C.

The passage of an upper trough has changed the weather in recent hours. Thunderstorms have discharged with intensity due to the generation of large convection clouds fueled by cold air that has dropped from more northerly latitudes. This clash of air masses with very different conditions has contributed to intense showers, accompanied by electrical apparatus, hail, and sleet (for example, yesterday afternoon, in Arbúcies). Until mid-afternoon on Saturday, we had already accumulated up to 35 l/m² in Sant Llorenç Savall and between 15 and 30 l/m² around the Montseny massif.

We wake up after a night that has been restless and very warm in general. Widespread tropical minimums have been recorded, but also many torrid ones on the coast, in the south, and in Ponent, with marked – and in some cases unbearable – sultriness on the coast and pre-coast. However, from today onwards, thermometers will start to drop, and the heat will become less extreme, with variable or partly cloudy skies and the risk of showers accompanied by mud in some regions. Despite everything, the very warm atmosphere, intense sultriness on the coast and pre-coast, and values above the climatic average will continue. No significant drop in mercury or a clearer unstable situation is expected for at least another seven to ten days.

Extreme heat has given a little respite this weekend, with very high values, but without the records of a few days ago. Yesterday, Saturday, many observatories in Ponent again brushed 38°C, with a lot of sultriness on the coast, due to low clouds. From today, temperatures will rise again and a new heat episode will begin. We are on the verge of what will be the third heatwave of the summer, when we will not yet have recovered from the second. The suffocating atmosphere gives no respite and after the sultriness we will again suffer a new influx of dry African air, with predicted values of up to 28°C at 1,500 m. This situation will cause thermometers to exceed 40°C again in many areas.

The mass of warm air that is affecting us these days is losing strength and will move away towards the center of Europe. However, the heat is still intense and, once again, we have registered values close to 38°C in some regions of Ponent and Empordà. For example, in Cabanes they reached 38.7°C yesterday and in Lleida, up to 38.6°C. During the rest of the weekend we will continue under the effects of the anticyclonic ridge and the incursion of very warm air and dust in suspension from North Africa. Next week the thermometers will drop, but the latest maps reduce the possibility of a forceful cooling.

A new pocket of warm air from North Africa will keep the atmosphere fully summer-like throughout this new week, after highs of 36 or 37 ºC were already reached this weekend in Ponent and the southern interior. This hot air will lower atmospheric pressure and generate a small thermal low that will favor the formation of afternoon thunderstorms, especially in the Pyrenees. In fact, some already reappeared yesterday, accumulating up to 25 l/m² in La Bonaigua (2,200 m, Pallars Sobirà), 15 l/m² in Puigcerdà (Cerdanya), and 3 l/m² in Núria (Ripollès).

A pocket of warm air from North Africa is making the atmosphere feel like mid-summer. This hot air will favor the formation of a thermal low over the Iberian Peninsula, which will cause the thermometer to rise and also form afternoon thunderstorms in the Pyrenees. This weekend, thermometers are generating highs higher than what would be expected for this time of year, with values that have exceeded 36°C in Empordà and Central Catalonia. For example, yesterday in Cabanes (Alt Empordà) and Artés (Bages) they reached up to 36.4°C. In Lleida or El Poal, they reached 35.6°C.

The full summer atmosphere that has accompanied us for days is leaving thermal records that, in some cases, have never been seen in the middle of May. The United Kingdom, France, and Cantabria and Asturias in Spain are some of the places where unusual values have been recorded in a heatwave with few precedents, both for its date on the calendar – at the end of meteorological spring – and for its intensity and persistence, with many days widely above the climatic average. Also in Catalonia, in recent days, temperatures more typical of early July than of May have been reached, with thermometers approaching 35 °C in some territories.

The mass of warm air over the Iberian Peninsula continues to generate an atmosphere more typical of early July than May. This weekend, temperatures once again neared 35 °C in the Lleida plain and the Girona regions, and exceeded 32 °C in the pre-coastal areas. On the coast, the lack of ventilation and intense radiation caused the mercury to climb to 31 °C in Roses. Models indicate that this warm spell will extend for much of the week, with values between 6 and 8 degrees above average in some cases. Thermometers will reach their peak between Thursday and Friday, with a warm surge that will bring values close to 38 °C in western Catalonia.

The anticyclone will keep storms away from our latitudes and the existing pocket of warm air over the Iberian Peninsula is still generating temperatures more typical of early July than May. Yesterday, they again brushed 35 °C in the Lleida plain, as, for example, in Alfarràs and in the Girona regions they reached up to 30 °C. On the other hand, on the coast, the presence of fog banks contributed to the thermometer not exceeding 24 °C or 25 °C in some parts of the Costa Brava.

The passage of a new cold air furrow at high altitude will destabilize the weather this Sunday. Showers and storms will increase, with an afternoon that is expected to be unsettled, especially to the north of the territory and in Central Catalonia. The last polar front has caused a significant cool-down, with an atmosphere more typical of March than of May. Snow has fallen in the Pyrenees below 1,400 m and has left wintery, postcard-like landscapes at medium and high altitudes.

The last precedents of strong or very strong El Niño episodes left worrying data that were exacerbated by the influence of global warming. The super El Niño of 2015-2016 was the most powerful on record, with an oceanic warming index of more than 2.5 ºC. An extraordinary fact that contributed to 2016 being the warmest year recorded worldwide up to then.

The world is looking towards the Pacific with unease. Forecasts from major international climate agencies warn of the probable formation of what has popularly been dubbed a super-Niño over the coming months in this area of the planet. An episode of the El Niño phenomenon much more intense than usual, capable of shaking global climate. Its consequences could range from extreme droughts to torrential rains in different parts of the planet, but above all due to a clear and general rise in temperatures.

El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon that occurs when the surface waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean warm more than usual. This warming alters the usual large-scale circulation of winds and rainfall. Normally, trade winds push warm water westward in the Pacific, near Indonesia and Australia. But when these winds weaken, the warm water shifts towards the central and eastern Pacific, especially off the coasts of Peru and Ecuador. This causes the sea temperature to rise and alters precipitation.