The anomalous heat settles in Spain: highs of up to 40 degrees and tropical nights until next week

The early heat that has been sending thermometers soaring in a good part of Spain has no intention of disappearing in the short term. The State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) has warned that abnormally high temperatures for this time of year will be maintained, at least, until the middle of next week, consolidating an end of May more typical of mid-summer than of the final stretch of spring.

The situation will leave values between 5 and 10 degrees higher than usual in a large part of the country, and even higher anomalies in some areas of the northern third of the peninsula. The episode will especially affect the center, the Ebro valley and the southern half, where maximums will again move in July or August records.

Cities like Sevilla, Badajoz, Zaragoza or Lleida will continue to hover around or exceed 38 degrees during the weekend. In some points of the Guadalquivir valley, even, reaching 40 degrees in the central hours of the day is not ruled out. Meanwhile, nights will begin to leave temperatures difficult to bear in many urban areas, with minimums that in several territories will not drop below 20 degrees.

AEMET foresees that tropical nights will become one of the main characteristics of this episode. The phenomenon will especially affect the northeast, the Mediterranean and wide areas of the peninsular center and south, where sleeping without a fan or air conditioning will begin to be complicated even before June.

The spokesperson for the agency, Rubén del Campo, has explained that the weather will remain very warm during the coming days despite some punctual drops in the Cantabrian Sea. Precisely the peninsular north will be one of the few areas where thermal relief will arrive partially thanks to the entry of cooler winds, although temperatures will remain above normal for the season.

Meanwhile, the heat will continue to be established in a good part of the peninsular interior and the Balearic Islands. In the Valencian Community, temperatures will widely exceed 36 degrees in inland areas, and in Mallorca, very high maximums are also expected for the end of May. The Canary Islands, for their part, will experience a thermal decrease compared to previous days, although they will maintain a warm and dry environment.

Atmospheric stability will continue to dominate the general outlook, with scarce precipitation in most of the country. Even so, the accumulated heat will favor the formation of evolution clouds in mountainous areas of the north and east of the peninsula, where isolated storms could occur, some accompanied by electrical activity and locally intense downpours.

Furthermore, during the coming days, the possibility of haze will persist in some areas of the peninsular west, an element that will contribute to increasing the sensation of mugginess in certain regions.

Medium-term forecasts also do not point to a radical change. Meteorological models managed by AEMET and other specialized agencies indicate that the beginning of June could maintain temperatures clearly above the usual average. Some experts already warn that this summer could be among the warmest of recent years in Spain.

Current trends depict a particularly warm summer in a good part of the country, with thermal anomalies that could be between 1.5 and 3 degrees above normal values in regions such as Castilla-La Mancha, Madrid, or Extremadura. Added to this is a scenario of more frequent storms in areas of the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean slope, and some inland points.

Spain thus faces an end of May marked by a fully summery thermal sensation, with persistent heat, increasingly difficult nights, and thermometers that continue to behave as if summer had already arrived several weeks ahead of schedule.