What is "thermal blowout"? The "devastating" phenomenon that has caused the tragedy of the Medusa festival

• Tragedy One dead and at least 40 injured at the Medusa Festival when several structures fell due to strong gusts of wind

A

.

has been described

that has caused

Medusa festival

.

But what is a "thermal blowout"?

When it occurs?

Why?

And, above all, it is possible to predict it.

Last night, the Meteorology Agency (AEMET) launched an alert on its social networks warning that

were taking place that were leaving "very strong gusts of wind and sudden rises in temperature".

were recorded at the Elche airport

.

Valencia

Music.

One dead and at least 40 injured at the Medusa Festival when several structures fell due to strong gusts of wind

• Editorial: THE WORLD |

  AGENCIESMadrid |

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One dead and at least 40 injured at the Medusa Festival when several structures fell due to strong gusts of wind

"This morning temperatures have exceeded 40 °C in points of the Mediterranean area due to hot blowouts. This phenomenon consists of

that cause intense gusts of wind and a sudden rise in temperature," they say from the Aemet.

The perfect combination for the so-called blowouts to occur.

explains

, a thermal blowout occurs when falling precipitation

or very dry air in a relatively warm environment.

Thermal

can be classified as

, depending on whether or not precipitation reaches the ground.

In the case of

, the precipitation does not reach the ground.

And the

, depending on whether their diameter is less than or greater than 4 kilometers.

In the case of

it was a dry blow, which can often be confused with a

.

"The result is a sudden and intense heating of the air and, often, a decrease in humidity on the surface," adds Aemet.

As this air cools, it becomes denser compared to the surrounding warmer air: as a result it sinks to the surface at high speed.

"At this point, the air is completely dry and there is no more evaporation that can occur. The descending air can no longer cool down," they say from

.

The air, however,

towards the surface due to the momentum it has already acquired.

As

, which increases as it descends.

This

(moving down towards the surface) moves horizontally along the surface in all directions, resulting in a strong wind.

hard to predict

That is why

"are often accompanied by very strong surface winds and are difficult to predict."

According to the

, "they usually occur in the decay phase of a storm and, in general, at night or in the early hours of the morning, when

than in the layer immediately above".

And although meteorological experts warn that they are not usual phenomena, the

that occurred at the Medusa festival is not the first on record.

One dead and 40 injured at the Medusa festival due to strong windsTHE WORLD

As reported by

, some extreme examples of heat bursts or hot blasts reported around the world include temperature reports of 66.3°C in

, Turkey on July 10, 1977;

a rise in temperature from 37.8° to 70°C in two minutes near

, Portugal, on July 6, 1949, and an incredible 86°C temperature apparently recorded in June 1967, in

, Iran, where dozens of people died and the asphalt streets liquefied.

In

there are also some cases of hot bursts.

This is the case of the dry blowout, as it is called when precipitation falls and evaporates as it passes through a layer of dry or very dry air in a relatively warm environment, which took place at the

airport , or the thermal blowout that occurred in

on July 6, 2019 and that caused

, according to data from the Aemet.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

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• Articles Esther Mucientes