The strong heat will extend for a few more days

BarcelonaThis Thursday there has been a peak of extreme heat that has left up to 40°C in many parts of Ponent, the Pre-Pyrenees and nearby areas. This figure has been reached, for example, in municipalities such as Solsona, Montesquiu, La Pobla de Segur, Sant Romà d'Abella, Torres de Segre, Vilanova de Segrià or Alcarràs. But the highest maximums were recorded in Lleida and Tremp, with 41.3°C and 41°C respectively. Temperatures have risen especially in the interior, in Empordà and in the Pyrenees. An episode of intense heat that will still last for several days, even though between Friday and Saturday the thermometers may drop a degree or two.

Small, practically imperceptible changes, while waiting for temperatures to reach their peak again between Sunday and the beginning of next week. The third official heatwave in our region mainly affects the interior of the country, where this summer it already seems usual to reach 40°C, a rare occurrence in previous years. All in all, with considerable calm in general, but a tail of a front will slightly reactivate instability in the Pyrenees and nearby areas, where on Friday and Saturday some showers and thunderstorms will fall.

Friday: some afternoon showers

The night from Thursday to Friday will again be warm and tropical in many regions, with torrid lows again in parts of the coast and the south of the country. Meteocat maintains alerts for nighttime heat in Ponent and Ebre, but also in the Vall d'Aran, an extraordinary fact.

Maximum temperatures may drop slightly on the last day of July in the Pyrenees, inland and in the northeast after Thursday's heat peak, but the atmosphere will remain suffocating and very warm, with temperatures clearly above average. Many maximums of 33 to 38°C in the pre-coastal areas and inland, around 40°C in Ponent, and a heavy and muggy atmosphere on the coast. Heat alerts remain active in the Lleida region.

The dust in suspension will increase and leave an increasingly earthy sky, with plenty of sun in most regions. However, instability will increase slightly and some showers and thunderstorms will reappear in parts of the Pyrenees, the Pre-Pyrenees and the Ports area between the afternoon and night. In fact, in the morning, an initial shower in the western Pyrenees is not ruled out. Water that will be accompanied by mud. Some low clouds or fogs along the coast will also be repeated.

Very warm weekend

Temperatures will remain similar on Saturday, with intense heat during the day and mild to warm conditions at night. But on Sunday, thermometers will rise again and a new torrid peak of this heatwave will begin until the beginning of next week. Therefore, 40 °C will continue to be reached in Ponent. It will be a suffocating first weekend of August.

All this with plenty of sun and calm, while afternoon showers and thunderstorms will repeat on Saturday in the Pyrenees. Dust in suspension will also remain. We still have a few days left under the new warm bubble from North Africa, which is leaving temperatures above 25 °C at an altitude of 1,500 m, extraordinary values. A very warm irruption that also embraces the rest of southern and central Europe.

Everything seems to indicate that the thermometers will be going down during the second half of next week, with the possibility that afternoon instability will increase. There are still days left, so for now we will have to sweat it out.