To the summer of San Miguel we could remove this year the diminutive. The high temperatures recorded last week, up to 14 degrees above normal in Spain at the beginning of autumn, have not only filled terraces and beaches during the last days; It seems that this extension of the summer will continue at least throughout this week, with most of the country above 30 degrees. An extreme weather for the autumn that will also bring sudden changes: in Bilbao no less than 37 degrees are expected for this Monday, but equally striking is that tomorrow Tuesday they will not pass 22 degrees there, that is, they will have 15 degrees less from one day to the next.

What is already certain is that October began on Sunday breaking numerous heat records, according to Rubén del Campo, spokesman for the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet): "On Sunday, October 1, 35 stations of the main network of Aemet, that is, approximately one in three, beat their maximum temperature record for the month of October. " Around 350 automatic stations reached or exceeded 32 degrees, accounting for almost 40% of stations. In most of the territory they were records between seven and 14 degrees higher than usual at this time of year.

"There is no precedent for such a warm end of September and early October for the whole of Spain," says Del Campo after analyzing the data collected yesterday. And it is that both the aforementioned October 1 and September 29 and 30 have been the warmest for their date since at least 1950. Another fact that reflects the unprecedented intensity of this heat wave for this time of year is that "the air mass that flew over our country at that time was probably the warmest since there are records."

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The Aemet lives its most controversial and extreme summer: "Without a doubt, tomorrow we would launch again in Madrid the red warning by DANA if we see the same maps"

  • Writing: TERESA GUERRERO

The Aemet lives its most controversial and extreme summer: "Without a doubt, tomorrow we would launch again in Madrid the red warning by DANA if we see the same maps"

Among the records that were broken are the 38º maximum temperature that they endured yesterday in Badajoz, and the 38.2ºC in Montoro (Córdoba), surpassing in both cases the previous maximum temperature for the month of October measured in mainland Spain, which had been the 37.5ºC reached in Marbella (Málaga), in 2014.

Also noteworthy are the 34.8 degrees measured at Salamanca airport (which exceeded by more than three degrees the previous record of 31.5 degrees measured in 2017) in a series that has almost 80 years of data; 34.4 °C in Daroca, in the province of Zaragoza, a station more than a century old whose previous record was 32.9 °C measured in 1925; or the 30 degrees measured in the also centennial station of Madrid's El Retiro park, which equaled its previous record in October (1930).

In Burgos they had never been at 30 degrees in October and yesterday they endured 32.1 (the previous record was 29.1 degrees were and occurred in 2004).

In the Canary Islands it was also very hot, especially in the south of Gran Canaria, where they enjoyed 36 degrees but there they did not beat the 39 degrees that have been reached previously for October.

"An extraordinary episode of heat"

Despite the high temperatures, formally this episode is not going to be considered a heat wave because as Del Campo clarifies, "although the temperatures are very high for the time and typical of summer, to talk about a heat wave there would have to have been extreme records even in the middle of summer (the temperatures of heat waves are 5% of the warmest in July and August)". However, he stresses that "it is an extraordinary episode for the time of year."

A fan assistant to a participant in Dragonfest festival in VitoriaEFE

As we said, the heat will continue this week, but how much will the thermometers rise? "In principle, the highest temperatures during the next few days will be between 36 and 38 ºC in the valleys of the Guadiana and Guadalquivir," explains Del Campo, who also anticipates that although there will be ups and downs depending on the days and the area (such as "the extraordinary drop in the northern third that they will have on Tuesday compared to Monday") in general they will continue to exceed 32-34 degrees in the southern half and 30 degrees in the southern half most of Spain.

The autumn weather will not arrive until next week when, according to Del Campo, there could be a thermal decrease if a frontal system arrives that would leave rains mainly in the northwest, and also a drop in temperatures in the Canary Islands.

  • Environment
  • AEMET