The third heat wave of the year
The Spaniards groan under the heat of the “oven”
07/17/2023, 11:55 p.m
Spain will feel the consequences of climate change hard this summer: meteorologists have officially declared a heatwave for the third time. Few dare to set foot on the streets or beaches. The “oven” temperatures also surpassed holiday regions such as Mallorca or Andalusia.
The third official heat wave of the summer has begun in Spain. The heat alert issued by the national weather service Aemet has been applied to 12 of the 17 so-called autonomous communities in the popular holiday destination. The result was deserted streets and beaches clogged in many places, TV station RTVE and others reported.
The few people who dared go outside in Madrid on Monday when a maximum temperature of 39 degrees was declared in the shade tried to cool themselves with fans, umbrellas and water bottles, among other things. The second heat wave, with temperatures nearing 45 degrees in Spain, ended only on Thursday, and the third wave is now expected to last until Wednesday. Until then, you’ll feel like you’re in “The Oven,” the newspaper headline, “AS.”
In contrast to the first two heat waves, this time, in addition to the Andalusia region and parts of Catalonia and Navarra, the focus is for the first time on the German holiday hotspot Mallorca with particularly high temperature values ​​announced. It was very hot on the Balearic Island on Monday: 36 degrees were already measured on the Balearic Island in the afternoon.
But the worst is yet to come: For Tuesday, Emmett declared the highest red alert for the north, northeast, and central of the island. In the Incas, about 30 kilometers northeast of the island’s capital, Palma, the thermometer should have reached the 44-degree mark, according to experts. This would be the highest value measured in Mallorca so far this year. In Playa de Palma, the temperature should reach 38 degrees Celsius on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The values ​​measured on Monday are “five to ten degrees above average for large parts of the interior of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands.” The situation may worsen on Tuesday. In some places, according to Aemet, the temperature can be 10 to 15 degrees above normal.
According to Aemet, more and more extreme heat waves are being recorded in Spain. Experts attribute this to man-made climate change. Emmett Spokesman Ruben Del Campo: “One thing is clear: climate change is leading to an increase in extreme weather events.”