Weather change on the weekend: more showers and goodbye to extreme heat

BarcelonaThis Friday the atmosphere was again very suffocating, with many highs of 35°C to 40°C even in coastal areas, but with higher values in Ponent and the Ebro valley, such as 41.5°C in El Canós (Segarra), 41.3°C in Vinebre (Ribera d'Ebre) or 41°C in Lleida and Alcarràs (Segrià) and Tàrrega (Urgell). They also brushed against 40°C on the Barcelona pre-littoral. Such extremely high temperatures will not be repeated this weekend, with thermometers dropping. We are coming from so high that the heat of full summer will continue, but it will be less intense and far from 40°C. All this with an increase in instability. Showers and storms will gain ground and intensity, mainly in the pre-littoral, inland and in the Pyrenees. But these showers could reach some coastal areas. No such extreme heat episode is foreseen in the medium term and by the end of next week the atmosphere will be much more bearable.

Saturday: temperatures down and thunderstorms

The weekend will still start with nighttime heat and very marked mugginess near the sea, especially on the central and southern coast. Meteocat still maintains activated alerts in this regard in these areas until Sunday.

However, maximums will clearly drop, especially inland and in the Pyrenees, with a sharper descent particularly in the west. Extreme values from Friday will no longer be reached, where there were many maximums of 30°C to 35°C, far from the more than 40°C of recent days. It will be on the coast where this drop will be most difficult to notice, as it will still feel muggy.

A change in thermometers that will also be accompanied by more instability. The morning will still be calm and quite sunny. But clouds will begin to grow as the hours pass in mountainous and inland areas, without ruling out some initial local showers. It will be in the afternoon when showers and storms will gain ground and strength. They can fall irregularly in almost any part of the interior, Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees, and also in the Ports area.

They will also arrive in pre-coastal areas, while the coast will remain more on the sidelines of this situation initially. However, in the afternoon, strong storms may also reach the southern coast. The thunderstorms can be intense and be accompanied by hail, sleet, or strong winds, which is why Meteocat has activated the alert for heavy rain in many counties.

Sunday: rough weather

The weather will remain unstable on Sunday, with variable and changing skies overall. In the morning, the first showers will fall in the north of the country, and in the afternoon, showers and thunderstorms will repeat, this time mainly in the northern half of the country, even reaching coastal areas of the northeast. There will also be storms in the Ports area and in the interior of Mallorca, Castellón, and Valencia.

All in all, temperatures could still drop a little more, both day and night. The night will be more pleasant overall and cool in mountain areas, but still muggy near the sea. The maximum temperatures will be typical of mid-summer, but with much more moderate heat than in previous days.

No major heatwaves in sight

Next week, thermometers will experience some ups and downs, even with intense heat mid-week in a temporary manner. But no extreme heat episode like in the last few days is expected. In fact, by the end of next week, temperatures could drop more significantly and normalize completely, something that has not happened for almost the entire summer. This would translate into bearable heat during the day and mild or cool nights.

Regarding the state of the sky, showers will continue to occur in some regions. On Monday, instability could move to the regions of Barcelona and Girona, while from Thursday onwards we could have a more extensive spell of storms and showers. We will keep monitoring everything, but it seems that the second half of August will begin to leave the worst part of the summer behind.

New heat records

This summer is being historic and exceptional in terms of heat, and in Catalonia, records continue to be shattered. In this regard, Friday was the eighteenth day this year that 40°C has been reached somewhere in the country, a new record for our region of days in a year reaching this extreme figure, breaking last year's recorded record. The record for tropical nights – above 25°C – has also been broken in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, a total of 48 by Saturday this year 2026, leaving behind the record of 45 tropical nights from 2022.

Furthermore, on Thursday, a new record for marine heat was recorded in L'Estartit, in Baix Empordà. According to observer Josep Pascual, the sea surface temperature one mile from the Medes Islands reached 27.77°C, an unprecedented record since Pascual began taking measurements in 1974, surpassing the record held until now from August 2024. This is an exceptional figure considering it is the oldest series of sea water records in the Mediterranean. It represents a value five degrees above the average.