"We are going towards a new normality of heat that we do not want"

Although exceptional temperatures were recorded in May, they did not technically amount to a heat wave.

Now, however, and since last Sunday, most of Spain is immersed in one.

It is the second earliest since there are records along with the one that occurred in 1981, which began on June 11, a day earlier.

Today Tuesday and tomorrow Wednesday could be the worst days of the new episode, which will last at least until Friday and hopefully start to subside by the weekend.

At the moment, there have been no record measurements at any specific point, but the extension and intensity of the wave, which covers almost the entire Peninsula and the Balearic Islands and is bringing temperatures higher than those of the summer heat wave period, make it a exceptional event, which requires taking precautions from the point of view of health.

In addition, the fact that it has arrived so early, just beginning the climatic summer and still in the astronomical spring, is

.

“Although extreme heat has never been unknown in June, the point is that heat waves in this month have become five times more frequent in the 22 years that we have been in the 21st century;

five times more frequent in the 21st century than between 1975 and 2000”, reviews Rubén del Campo, spokesman for the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).

“

, including the current one.

Between 1975 and 2000, only two were registered in that month », he compares.

"Behind this increase is, with great certainty, climate change, which increases the frequency and intensity of heat waves," says Del Campo.

The climatological summer begins on June 1 and lasts three months.

But, in recent decades,

.

Summer, understood as the period when it is hottest, lasts longer and longer.

Therefore, it is foreseeable that heat waves on dates that are not strictly summer, like the current one, will continue to be more and more common.

“We don't know exactly when they will occur, but what we do know is that summer is getting longer, at the rate of nine days per decade.

», details Mar Gómez, doctor in Physical Sciences and head of meteorology at Eltiempo.es.

"That the summer is lengthened, both at the beginning and at the end - we do not know exactly if it is going to do it by reducing spring or reducing autumn - increases the probability that those heat waves may appear earlier or later," Add.

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“It is very likely that in the future we will have

;

and, since the summer is getting longer, there is a probability that this will happen earlier”, weighs the meteorologist.

However, although events like these days may be more and more common in the future, they are exceptional in relation to the past: «The situation now is not normal.

Although we had a heat wave 41 years ago at this point in June, it was only one, “recalls Gómez.

“It must be emphasized that this is not normal.

What I see on social networks, or by people who write to me, is that they say: 'Well, it's summer.

In summer it is hot'.

But

, with higher temperatures than in the heat wave, which is the statistically warmest period of the year, and that it is so early," the expert lists, and recalls: " Heat waves in recent years are more intense and severe throughout the world.

Spain, especially vulnerable

A trend to which Spain, due to its geographical location, is especially vulnerable.

“We are very exposed to warm air mass inflows from North Africa, which causes heat waves.

Sometimes they are also accompanied by haze, or there are independent haze events, like the ones that have also accompanied us this year.

There are other countries that are affected, but

, especially the southern half of the Peninsula”, Gómez considers.

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“We are going towards a new normality that we do not like, because it will imply longer, more intense and more severe heat waves;

possibly, with higher mortality rates if we don't adapt, in addition to reduced rainfall, haze inflows that harm the respiratory system and health...”, warns the doctor in Physical Sciences.

«

.

We are going to a normality that we do not want.

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