June will start with thin clouds and less heat

BarcelonaThe heat was not so intense during the weekend, although it will be from Monday and towards Wednesday when we will have thermal values more typical for this time of year. Little by little we have left behind a heatwave that has broken the record for the highest maximum ever reached in Catalonia in the month of May, with 39.5 °C recorded in Vinebre (Ribera d'Ebre) on Friday (you will find the most outstanding data of this historic heatwave at the end of this article). The prominence, however, will continue to be for the warm weather and also for a sun that will combine with high clouds and with showers in the north of the country, as we have already seen during Saturday and Sunday afternoons, with local but intense storms in some cases. All in all, however, waiting for a possible new heatwave that would arrive on the first weekend of meteorological summer.

Monday: less warm weather

The month of June will begin with few changes regarding the meteorological situation, still marked by the presence of high clouds, which will leave the sky overcast, and by the formation of some showers that during the afternoon will affect the Pyrenean regions. Locally they will be accompanied by storms and hail. The temperature will drop during the central hours of the day, especially on the coast and pre-coast, with 6 ºC to 10 ºC less than the thermal values recorded on Thursday, although the feeling of mugginess will remain near the coast.

Tuesday: less warm weather

Day again marked by the presence of high clouds, with an overcast sky everywhere, and also by the formation of clouds in the Pyrenees that will again leave showers, concentrated in the eastern sector of the mountain range. The temperature will drop more generally in Catalonia, but will rise transiently in the interior of the Valencian Country and in other places in the southeast of the peninsula, where 39 or 40 ºC could be exceeded.

Awaiting a possible heatwave

The maps indicate that throughout the week temperatures will be falling and will bottom out between Tuesday and Thursday, when they will approach the usual temperature for this time of year. This, however, could be short-lived, as we could subsequently be back under the influence of a warm air mass at altitude that would raise the mercury. It seems we would be far from the records of a few days ago, but the heat would be intense again.

Balance of a historic heatwave

The long, historic, and premature heatwave we are experiencing these days in Catalonia and much of Europe is the result of a powerful anticyclone that is causing what is known as the heat dome effect: the air does not circulate and we have strong solar radiation that heats the environment a lot, which causes the heat to accumulate and become more intense day after day. An episode that has left many heat records in our country and across the continent. The most notable figure is the 39.5 ºC reached on Friday in Vinebre (Ribera d'Ebre), which has become the new absolute heat record for a month of May in all of Catalonia. But there have been exceptional figures throughout the territory. Also noteworthy are the 37.5 ºC reached at the Lleida station on Friday, which with 86 years of data has recorded its heat record in May, and has surpassed the record registered the previous day. There have also been other records in Ponent and in the Ebre.

On Friday morning, the weather was tropical in many parts of the coast and the pre-coastal areas. Torrid lows, above 25 °C, have even been recorded. This is the case of the Fabra Observatory in Barcelona, where the 25.3 °C minimum recorded on Friday morning is the new provisional record for night-time heat in May in 112 years of data. Finally, in the evening, the thermometer dropped below this mark and, technically, it stopped being a record for a whole day. Also noteworthy are the 25.7 °C minimum in Portbou (Alt Empordà), where on Thursday it did not drop below 28 °C, the new record for the highest minimum in May in Catalonia. An extraordinary event, very localized in this area due to the re-heated tramuntana wind that blew there.

We have experienced the worst two days of this historic and premature heatwave, which on Thursday left many heat records for the month of May. The centenary Ebro Observatory also broke its own May record, with 37.3 °C. The city of Girona reached 37 °C in May for the first time since records began, and the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona also broke its own May heat record, with a maximum of 33.6 °C. Many other municipalities also reached their own heat records on Thursday.