Temperatures could reach 40°C this week in Spain. Unusual temperatures for the month of April, underlines the Spanish meteorological agency (AEMET) on Tuesday April 25, the cause of which is “the gradual entry of a mass of very hot and dry air from Africa, associated to atmospheric stability [i.e. unchanged weather] and strong sunshine”.
These temperatures will be “typical of summer” and “unusually high for these dates”, adds the AEMET, in a press release posted on its Twitter account, and which expects the mercury to rise up to 38-40 degrees Celsius in the southern Guadalquivir Valley, which includes the city of Cordoba, from Thursday.
If the forecast is confirmed, it would be the highest temperature recorded for any month of April since official weather records began in the country in 1961. The previous monthly record of 37.4°C was recorded in the eastern region of Murcia on April 9, 2011. Meteorologists are also warning of an increased risk of forest fires as the heatwave coincides with a long-lasting drought in the country.
Adapted school hours
In order to help people cope with the first heat wave of the year, the government of the Madrid region announced on Monday a special action plan, including measures to allow schools to adapt their timetables according to heat peaks and to ensure adequate air conditioning in health centres.
The Spanish capital’s ubiquitous outdoor pools, where locals flock every year when temperatures soar, will open in mid-May, a month earlier than usual, and the capital’s metro will increase air conditioning and train frequency to avoid congestion.
The city of Seville, in the southwest of the country, increased its emergency services budget and the number of its health professionals on the occasion of the Feria de Abril, a very popular spring fair which attracted 2022 some 500,000 people. According to the annual state of the climate report from Copernicus, the European Union’s climate change service, southern Europe experienced the highest number of “very high heat stress” days on record in 2022. .
