Start of the week with more heat: the 40 °C return

BarcelonaThe weekend has been marked by the same meteorological trend that has accompanied us for the last month, with intense heat and practically no rainfall anywhere. The temperature did not reach 40 °C, but it approached 38 °C or 39 °C in parts of the Ponent region and the interior of the Ebro valley, while on the coast the mugginess was very pronounced. All this in anticipation of a new thermal rise during the first days of this new week, although with hope placed on a possible progressive normalization of thermometers from Thursday or Friday onwards.

Monday: a little more heat

The night has once again been warm and restless in various counties, with many tropical minimums, but scorching in some stretches of the coast and south. The week starts with intense heat, even with a slightly higher maximum temperature in the west and in the Ebro valley interior, where it will locally exceed 40 °C. In the rest of the country, heat will also be the protagonist, with maximums of 33 °C to 38 °C inland and 30 °C to 35 °C on the coast, with marked mugginess. The sun will maintain its absolute dominance, with some harmless afternoon cloudiness in parts of the Pyrenees and high and medium clouds in the southern half and along the coast. In the afternoon or evening, some muddy showers are not ruled out on the coast and pre-coastal areas of the southern half.

In this regard, the Meteorological Service of Catalonia has again activated heat warnings, both diurnal and nocturnal. In the case of diurnal heat, the warnings are concentrated in the regions of Ponent, while those for high minimum temperatures mainly affect Terres de l'Ebre and Segrià.

Tuesday: still very hot

The temperature will not ease yet and the next night and early morning will be suffocating again near the coast, with some torrid minimums, but also in a good part of the interior, where it will remain above the threshold of tropical minimums. The maximum will remain everywhere or rise slightly, although the sensation will be similar to that of Monday. The maps indicate that between the end of the week and the beginning of the next, temperatures could normalize a little, with much more bearable heat, but for now they will still remain well above the climatic average for the end of July.

Mercury well above average

The temperature has remained widely above the climatic average of recent decades during the first half of summer, making it the warmest since records began in Catalonia. Specifically, if we look at these first three weeks of July, we see how we have always remained between 3 and 8 °C of the usual values, and how this weekend we have climbed again. A climb that will culminate between Monday and Tuesday.