Last hours of runaway heat: on the verge of a radical change in weather

BarcelonaTemperatures still rose a little more this Friday, causing completely unbridled heat for the season. Temperatures exceeded 30 °C again in Poniente, the Ebro, and Priorat, after it had already reached this for the first time this year on Thursday. But in areas of the pre-littoral and the northeast, temperatures also approached 29 or 30 °C. An practically summery day with values between 7 and 12 degrees above the average for the season. According to Meteocat data, 2026 ranks fifth in the podium of years in which 30 °C has arrived earliest since records began.

This Friday also saw the first tropical minimum temperatures of the year, one of the earliest phenomena since records began. Specifically in several municipalities of Alt Empordà, such as Portbou, Cabanes, and Espolla, where temperatures did not drop below 21 °C all night due to the overheated tramontana. Also noteworthy are the 18.8 °C minimum recorded at the Fabra Observatory in Barcelona, the highest minimum ever recorded in the month of April in 112 years of data.

On Saturday, it will still be very hot and dust in suspension will persist, but throughout the day cloud intervals will increase, and in the afternoon the first muddy showers will arrive in the Pyrenees and Poniente. All of this will be the prelude to the radical change in weather that will arrive on Sunday due to the passage of an Atlantic front and the entry of a clearly colder air mass. A situation that will cause showers and a significant drop in temperatures, which in some cases may be 10 or 15 °C compared to Friday.

Saturday: last day of atypical heat

On Saturday, temperatures will remain very high for the season, both day and night. It will not be cold early in the morning, and by midday many highs of 25 to 30 °C will be repeated, although they may already recede slightly inland. Again, thermometers will be more restrained on the coast due to the regulating effect of a still cold sea, where some local fogs are not ruled out.

But this Saturday, changes will already arrive. Throughout the day, intervals of high and medium clouds will increase from west to east, and the sky may become overcast by the afternoon in the western half. In contrast, cloudiness will be less significant in the northeast. From the afternoon, the first showers will fall in the Pyrenees, and perhaps in Poniente. Still very little. There will be a snowline that will fall from 2,400 to 1,600 m. The rain will be accompanied by mud, as there will still be a lot of African dust in suspension.

Sunday: radical change of weather

The passage of a front and the entry of a clearly colder air mass driven by a Mediterranean low will cause a very sudden change in weather this Sunday. What we will notice most is a sharp drop in temperatures, which will be between 10 and 15 °C in inland areas and the Pyrenees. The decrease will be more moderate on the coast, where the mercury has not shot up so much in recent days. We are talking about many maximums of 13 to 18 °C, nothing to do with the more than 30 °C of recent days. Clearly lower values in mountainous areas.

All this with a sky very loaded with clouds and more instability. Showers are expected in practically any location. Until mid-afternoon, they will mainly affect inland areas, the western half, and the Pyrenees, but as the hours pass, they will reach the east of the country. In fact, between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, the rain may sweep mainly across the regions of Barcelona and Girona.

In the Pyrenees, the snowline will drop from 1,600 to 1,200 m, but on the north face, it may locally plummet to 800 m. The mistral and tramontana winds will gain strength in Empordà and the Ebro. A change in weather that will continue on Monday, but from Tuesday onwards, the sun and calm will return, with thermometers that will gradually recover. Even so, we will not live anything close to a new episode of atypical heat.