Alert for torrid peak across almost the entire country before changes on the weekend

BarcelonaAttention this Friday because the torrid peak of this new episode of intense heat that is again affecting a large part of Western Europe will occur. Many regions - most of the country - are on orange or yellow alert for extreme temperatures. Towards the plain of Lleida or the Ebro valley, temperatures will reach or exceed 40°C, while in most of the country, between 35 and 40ºC will be recorded, with very marked sultriness near the sea. Suffocating day.

All this after yesterday already exceeded 40°C in Ponent and the Ebro valley. Highlights include the 41.4°C recorded in Vinebre (Ribera d'Ebre), 41.1°C in Seròs (Segrià), and 41°C in Baldomar (Noguera). Thursday was the seventeenth day this year that 40°C was reached somewhere in the country, a new record in our region for days in a year reaching this extreme figure, which shatters the record set last year. The record for tropical nights - above 25°C - has also been broken in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, a total of 47 already this 2026. Figures that will still add at least one more day this Friday. Furthermore, on Thursday, a new record for sea heat was registered in l'Estartit, in Baix Empordà. According to observer Josep Pascual, the sea surface temperature a mile from the Medes Islands has reached 27.77°C, an unprecedented record since Pascual began taking measurements in 1974 and which exceeds the current record from August 2024.

But for all those people who are fed up with so much heat this summer, we bring good news. Starting this weekend, thermometers will begin to drop and instability will increase. It will be the beginning of a weather change that will cause the very warm air mass of these days to gradually recede next week, and a cooler one coming from the Atlantic will arrive. Next week the heat will be more bearable, with only a temporary spike in mercury mid-week, but far from the extreme values of recent days. Showers and thunderstorms will also be repeated.

Friday: extreme heat peak

Temperatures could still rise a little more this Friday. The night has once again been warm and stuffy, making it difficult to sleep, in a large part of the coast, pre-coast and south of the country. Tropical minimums have been repeated in many regions – also inland – and torrid ones in coastal and inland areas. The Raval neighborhood of Barcelona stands out, where the night never dropped below 28.5 °C. On the other hand, it has been cooler in the Pyrenees, pre-Pyrenees and nearby areas. Meteocat maintains alerts for nocturnal heat until Saturday dawn on the central and southern coast and pre-coast.

As for the maximums, most will move between 35 and 40 °C in the pre-coast and inland areas, with a suffocating atmosphere. These figures may even be exceeded locally in Ponent and the Ebro valley. Near the sea, temperatures will also exceed 30 °C, with a very marked feeling of stuffiness.

All in all with sun in the morning and new afternoon clouds that will leave irregular showers and some thunderstorms in parts of the Pyrenees, Pre-Pyrenees, coastal mountains and Ports, and which will also arrive with the passage of hours in some areas of the north of Central Catalonia and Lleida Plain. On the coast, calm and sun.

Goodbye to extreme heat

The weekend of August 15 will begin with a drop in temperatures. A decrease that will be more evident inland than on the coast, where the feeling of intense heat will still persist. All this with an increase in instability that will cause showers and thunderstorms to gain strength and extent in the afternoons in the Pyrenees, pre-Pyrenees, inland, and pre-coastal areas. Some showers could even reach the coast.

It will be the beginning of a change in weather that will cause temperatures to gradually normalize next week. The arrival of a mass of fresh air from the Atlantic will sweep away extreme heat and suspended dust, with a generally more bearable atmosphere. Until mid-week there may be ups and downs in temperatures, with still very warm conditions, but by the end of the week the mercury will fully normalize. Showers and thunderstorms will continue.