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Science.Filomena encounters the polar cold and causes an "unusual" storm
The weather forecasts for inland cities during these days show temperatures that, any other year, would seem reserved for high mountain environments.
The snowstorm recedes, clear skies arrive and a cold wave accompanied by frost.
Madrid is expected to fall on Tuesday, after a frigid Monday, to 7ºC or 8ºC below zero, the same as Soria.
Teruel will reach -10ºC, as will Toledo, while Cuenca (-12%) and Albacete (-13%) could reach unusual values, with the added problem that
the great thicknesses of accumulated snow will turn into ice
, putting in danger a mobility that hardly begins to recover after the passage of the storm Filomena.
On Wednesday temperatures will start to rise slightly, but the cold wave will continue until at least Thursday.
“We say goodbye to snowfalls, but we welcome particularly low temperatures, both at night and during the day.
In many places
we are not going to go above 5ºC at noon
», warns Mar Gómez, PhD in Physics and head of meteorology at 'eltiempo.es'.
There will be those who think that it is normal for it to be cold in winter, as well as those who remember the distant months of January in similar circumstances.
But the truth is that, if we stick to the last decades, it is estimated that
the thermometers will drop between 10ºC and 15ºC more than normal for these dates
.
"January is the coldest month of the year, but these temperatures are much lower than what is usually recorded," says Gómez.
Why is this cold wave coming?
And why, precisely, now that Filomena is leaving us?
First of all, since the end of December and the beginning of January we have had a mass of polar cold, which had already caused
records of low temperatures before Filomena reached the Peninsula
.
To this is now added the new anticyclonic situation.
"
The anticyclone implies a clear sky, and there is no air renewal
, we have no wind for the air masses to be renewed," Gómez details.
«The winter anticyclones are usually accompanied by that nocturnal situation in which frosts predominate, it is usually quite cold.
We do not have a layer of clouds that is protecting us like a blanket,
"he explains.
"It is common for anticyclones to occur in the winter months in our country, and they even stay with us for several weeks, which is when pollution levels skyrocket," clarifies the meteorologist.
But we already know that this is not just any January: «Right now
what we have is a very exceptional situation as a staging
and the anticyclone enters, that quite pronounced nighttime cooling, and we have all that layer of snow where ice is going to form sure".
"We must ask for caution because ice is very dangerous,
almost as much as a snow storm
like the one we have had these days," Gómez warns.
"Obviously, ice is one of the main dangers in driving, and also when traveling on the tracks."
The risk of falls and accidents will be important, although "it
will
also
depend on how the planning of each of the provinces is organized
in order to free the roads and prepare the streets."
"The worst has not happened", agrees, from the health sector, Ricardo Furió, spokesman for Satse (Nursing Union) in Madrid, who warns: "
Traumatology emergencies are beginning to be saturated
with people who are falling" after the snowfall .
It is recommended, therefore, "that the population be very careful and
try to go out as little as possible
."
Furthermore, frozen soils and cold are not the only problems we are facing this week: "Covid is still out there."
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