Borja R. Catela Madrid
Madrid
Updated Monday, March 25, 2024-21:38
"To fulfill the tradition, during Holy Week there are processions, we eat torrijas and the weather is spoiled." This is how EL MUNDO's talk begins with
Roberto Brasero
, Antena 3's Weather man and
one of the presenters most loved by viewers
. "I believe that time and climate are what design the scenario where life develops. That is why it is so exciting to tell it," admits the journalist.
And this time is a real ordeal for all the people who work in weather forecasting on the different television channels and radio stations. "Holy Week is when there is the most demand for forecasting because
it is when people want to know more
, either because they are going on vacation or because their procession is going out and they want to make sure they can see it after waiting a whole year," recognizes the Talaverano.
And in the days before the holidays we have found the weather typical of the end of May, with heat, with excessive temperatures for this time of year that have only served to confuse people when it comes to packing their suitcase, putting on swimsuits and short-sleeved t-shirts and forgetting about coats and umbrellas. A mistake.
It was all an illusion, because just when Easter begins, the temperatures have begun to drop, returning to a time almost at the end of February, that is, almost more typical of winter, with snowfall in mountain areas and mountains in the middle north and a drop in temperatures throughout Spain.
Since when do they start asking you about the weather during Easter? Since December, people have stopped me and asked me about the weather at this time of year, but the weather is very changeable and, these days, it is practically impossible to predict anything. Why is it so difficult even now, close to Easter, to be able to forecast the weather? It's that this time of year when there is more demand, there is more interest in knowing the weather and at the same time the weather makes it more It is difficult to know what the weather will be like in advance because the forecasts in early spring are more erratic. It is not the same in the middle of summer or the middle of winter, when the weather is already more settled, more consolidated, than in early spring when the changes begin. We are coming out of winter, there is beginning to be more energy in the atmospheric system and that generates more changes and, above all, makes forecasts more difficult.
"Forecasts in early spring are more erratic"
When do the men and women of Weather have it 'easiest'? When we have the most reliability it is with a powerful anticyclone that is installed in winter or summer and allows you to make forecasts for 15 or 20 days. When you have a much greater chance of forecasts failing, it is precisely at the beginning of spring, because there you do not give more reliability to the 3 or 4 day prediction on many occasions, because by the fifth day everything has already changed for you. So spring, for ecclesiastical reasons, always falls at this time, either at the end of March or at the beginning of April, but always at a problematic time for weather forecasts. And what will the weather be like this Week? Santa of 2024? It is common for Easter to have unstable weather, but this year we also have a sudden change that directly returns us to winter. A cold front brings us a sharp drop in temperatures for Monday and especially Holy Tuesday, with snowfall in the mountains and mountains and even at lower levels. Starting on Wednesday, temperatures should no longer drop further and in the final stretch of Holy Week they will recover a little. It is likely that rain will continue to arrive in the west of the peninsula, while in the east and the Canary Islands it is less likely to rain starting on Holy Thursday.
"Starting on Wednesday, temperatures should no longer drop and in the final stretch of Easter they will recover a little"
What is your day-to-day life like at Atresmedia? My job is to try to get the forecast through all the channels I have available. I am lucky to be on Onda Cero and there we count the weather from the first hour with Carlos Alsina, then I get to television, where we check the last hour with the meteorologist we have, always being very attentive to confirm and corroborate the forecasts that come from AEMET. Next we make the daily program for a minute or two, because the Time I spend on Antena 3 Noticias depends on the time they give me on the screen. How did you become a Weather Man? I have a degree in Information Sciences from the Complutense University and I trained as a meteorological communicator at the INM, the current AEMET. But before that my professional career began at Antena 3 as an intern in 1991, but that is like a previous stage of my life (laughs). After there I went to Telemadrid, where I spent 12 years working, presenting reporter programs and I remember that, for example, I had to broadcast the Holy Week processions in the capital live. We did specials for Madrid Directo, Telenoticias. Then I went on to give
El Tiempo
on the channel's news, in 2005 I went to Antena 3 and until now... Since then I have not stopped talking about anticyclones and storms, but also about crops, the names of hurricanes or the dust from the Sahara that travels to the Amazon. I went to La Palma to report on the volcano and I was able to talk live about Filomena's snowfall, for example. And now also
El Desafío
? They called me from the program to offer me to participate as a contestant. I had been a guest in a previous edition and the truth is that I had a great time. So I said 'why not?' And there I am, surrounded by very interesting people who are fantastic companions and already facing some tests that are harder than I imagined. And what is harder: the tests of
El Desafío
or
El Tiempo
? The real challenge is to be able to count the time of Holy Week more in advance, which is always difficult for us on these dates.