After a brief hiatus at the end of July, temperatures have climbed back above 40°C since Sunday in Spain, which fears a third scorching heat wave in just two months.
“It is possible that from Sunday, July 31 to Wednesday, August 3 or Thursday, August 4, we will exceed the thresholds of intensity, duration and extension necessary to classify this episode of high temperatures as a heat wave”, explained this Monday the spokesman. the Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET), Rubén del Campo.
However, this episode would not be as extreme as the long heat wave from July 9 to 18, one of the most intense ever recorded, according to preliminary data from AEMET.
40 degrees on monday
After a high of 42.5°C on Sunday in Montoro, Andalusia in the south, mercury levels above 40°C were expected on Monday afternoon across much of the west and south of the country.
Tropical nights are also expected, where temperatures do not drop below 20 ° C, in various areas of the east and south of the country for several days, specifies AEMET.
The heat wave that hit Spain in July claimed more than 500 heat-related deaths, said the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who took up an estimate of excess mortality made by a public health institute.
many fires
These temperatures have also caused numerous fires that have already reduced nearly 230,000 hectares to ashes since the beginning of the year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis).
This assessment is the worst recorded this summer in Europe by this system, ahead of Romania and Portugal, and the highest in Spain since 2000, the year in which the observations began.
Repeated heat waves are a direct consequence of global warming, scientists say, with greenhouse gas emissions increasing in both intensity, duration and frequency.
Source: BFM TV
