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The vertical collapse of an air mass against the ground and subsequent horizontal gusts of wind of between 70 and 100 kilometers per hour, together with a rise in temperature of about 10 degrees and a drop in humidity by 40%, were some of the meteorological phenomena recorded last August during the

Cullera Medusa Festival

(Valencia), where there was one death and dozens of injuries.

This has been indicated to Efe by the person in charge of Climatology of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) in the Valencian Community,

José Ángel Núñez

, who after the incident that occurred on the morning of August 13, was appointed meteorological expert and has referred to the Court of Instruction 4 of Sueca (Valencia) a report with the meteorological circumstances that occurred that night.

According to Núñez, what happened was a

"warm blowout"

that occurred in the final phase of the storms that from one in the morning penetrated the interior of the provinces of Alicante, Valencia and the region of Murcia and, although in a generalized way They were producing increases in temperatures and generalized winds, there were specific places where they left very strong gusts.

These are dry storms that are based on a very high cloud - between 3 and 4 kilometers high - and the little precipitation that occurs evaporates below the mass of the cloud, in the mass of dry and warm air.

As it evaporates, the air cools, becomes denser, and sinks to the ground.

As indicated, these air crashes were detected by the radar located on the Cullera mountain, about two kilometers away from the place where the festival was held and, in addition to the gusts of wind, between 70 and 100 kilometers per hour , there was a rise in temperatures of about ten degrees, reaching records close to 40 degrees.

In addition, the humidity, which near the beach was at 80%, plummeted and dropped to less than 40%, "typical when these phenomena occur," the meteorologist indicated.

"They are small-scale phenomena and within the festival areas were very affected,

especially the western area, farthest from the sea, which was where there was the most damage

, while in the places closest to the sea there was hardly any damage," he indicated. .

It highlights that August 13 was the hottest day of the summer in the Valencian Community, with the heat wave and under conditions of a mass of warm air of African origin, and recalls that on August 15, 2021 there were already hot blowouts in the region of La Safor, one of which knocked over a Ferris wheel installed on Gandía beach (Valencia).

no time or place

Asked if these are unforeseeable phenomena, he indicates that he has not included it in the report but that on August 16, when he was in the area with the judge handling the case, he told him that "it was not exactly like that" because these phenomena "are due to weather conditions and

there were favorable environments

for them to occur".

"

What is unpredictable is determining the time and the specific place

. Something unpredictable is that it catches you by surprise and it is not like that because on the Aemet Twitter account we announced, a few days before, that

there could be constant gusts of wind

" , it states.

It also indicates that the general forecast warned that storms with very strong gusts of wind could occur.

"What cannot be foreseen is the exact place and the area," she insisted, adding that even in small enclosures of less than a kilometer, such as the Medusa, "there may be noticeable differences."

As he explains, an issue to take into account and that usually causes a lot of damage in this phenomenon is that the meteorological stations measure the horizontal wind, but in this case the main phenomenon was an air mass that collapsed from three or four kilometers of altitude and hit the ground.

"The air hits the ground and expands horizontally, but in the areas where it hits it usually causes

crushing and rebounding, with torn structures

," he added.

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