While waiting for the heatwave that will bring the first 40 ºC of the year

BarcelonaThe heat has continued to be very intense and fully summer-like in recent hours. But the mercury did not spike as much yesterday as on Wednesday inland, when temperatures exceeded 38 ºC in Ponent and the Ebro. Today there will be few changes, but from the weekend onwards temperatures will spike again. The anticyclone and the gust of very warm air from North Africa will strengthen and fully embrace the Iberian Peninsula and a large part of Europe, with extreme heat, especially in the west of the continent, where suffocating conditions are expected and we will see if there are any heat records in a month of June. In Catalonia, all this will result in a heatwave that will last at least until Saint John's Eve, with maximums of up to 40 ºC or more inland and tropical or torrid nights in many regions. Meteocat maintains the heatwave alert between Sunday and Tuesday, especially in the interior of the country.

Friday: few changes

The weather will remain without major changes this Friday, with general sunshine, suspended dust and afternoon clouds in the Pyrenees that, at most, will leave some local shower in the western sector. However, the novelty is that during the early morning and until the first hour of the morning, some intervals of clouds have been arriving which have left and can still leave some weak and local drizzle or shower, now only concentrated in the northeast of the country. Little will fall where they do and anecdotal phenomena, and all of it will quickly disappear, giving way to the sun.

Pleasant and mid-summer day, with intense heat and values very similar to Thursday's. Therefore, tropical minimums have been repeated in some parts of the coast and central and southern pre-coast – especially in large urban areas – and tonight also in parts of Ponent and the north of Alt Empordà. Many maximums will range between 30 and 35 ºC, higher in Ponent and the Ebro valley. The stuffy feeling will remain on the coast.

Suffocating weekend

Temperatures will begin to rise from the weekend, marking the start of the heatwave. Saturday will already be very hot, with 40 ºC potentially reached for the first time this year in Ponent or the Ebro valley. From Sunday, this value will be easier to reach or exceed in these areas and perhaps in other inland zones. Precisely on Sunday morning, the astronomical summer will officially begin, and it will do so in grand style. Monday will likely see the peak of this episode, with widespread extreme heat.

To declare a heatwave, there must be at least three consecutive days with very high temperatures that exceed the extreme heat threshold set for each municipality. So far, it has been very hot, but this requirement had not yet been met. In this episode, the circumstances are already expected to occur, especially between Sunday and Tuesday, and particularly in inland regions. During these days, temperatures are expected to be between 8 and 12 degrees above the usual average for this time of year.

A torrid situation that will also bring a lot of suspended dust and nights of very poor sleep, with tropical minimums (above 20 ºC) quite widespread, and even torrid on the coast (above 25 ºC). Therefore, the heat will be intense both day and night. From Sant Joan onwards, the mercury will ease off, but thermometers will remain clearly above average for the rest of the month.