Confirmed: a second heatwave arrives in Catalonia
The Meteocat has issued a prior alert for this new episode, which will begin starting Sunday
BarcelonaJust as we were recovering from last week's historic heatwave, the second one is already knocking at the door. Summer has barely begun and we are already heading for the second extreme heat episode of the season. Therefore, the slight respite that temperatures have given us coinciding with the beginning of July will not continue.
Thermometers will slowly rise day by day, and it will be especially from Sunday and during the beginning of next week when they will really skyrocket. The hottest days will be Monday and Tuesday, according to the maps right now. The Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat) has already issued a notice for this second heatwave of the year, which will officially start on Sunday, will last until at least next Wednesday and will particularly affect the interior of the country. In fact, the first alerts for daytime heat for this episode have already been activated on Sunday in Alt and Baix Empordà, and they will be extended to more regions in the coming days.
During this period, many highs of 35 to 40°C are expected, but they will be even higher in the hottest inland areas, especially in Ponent and the Ebro valley. On the coast, 30°C will also be widely exceeded, with marked mugginess. Warm and restless nights will also return to many regions, with generalized tropical values, but scorching – minimums above 25°C – in some points of the coast and pre-coast.
Therefore, extreme heat thresholds will be exceeded in a sustained manner for at least three consecutive days, an essential requirement to declare a heatwave. Most temperatures will range between 5 and 8 degrees above average, and although during the second part of the week the extremes necessary to maintain the heatwave label will no longer be reached, the fact is that the mercury will remain well above what it should be for many more days.
“It should be noted the persistence of this new hot spell, since, although we will end up removing the heatwave label from Wednesday onwards, the models indicate that the temperature will remain above the climatic average until mid-July,” explains Santi Segalà, head of the Meteocat Prediction area, in a statement.
Europe holds its breath
All this will be the result of the strengthening once again of the subtropical anticyclone in contact with the gust of very hot North African air. This episode will mainly hit the western Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula, but it will also affect some parts of central and western Europe again, when they are still recovering from the historic heat records reached last week. In the coming days it will be known which areas of the continent will be most affected, as there is still some uncertainty in this regard.
According to the Meteocat criteria, a heatwave is predicted when the forecast indicates that the maximum temperature thresholds established in various parts of Catalonia will be exceeded for three consecutive days or more. This threshold is not unique for the entire country, but is calculated statistically at each point to ensure that warnings are issued in heat situations that represent the exceptionality of each area.
