Spain is bracing for another day of intense heat this Thursday, 13 August, with weather warnings in place across 15 autonomous regions and temperatures expected to exceed 40C in some areas.
Spain Expat Press Editorial Team
According to Spain’s state weather agency AEMET, 11 regions are under orange alerts for high temperatures, as the latest spell of extreme summer heat continues to affect much of the country.
Among the areas facing orange warnings are Córdoba, Jaén and Seville in Andalusia, as well as parts of Aragón, Castile and León, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid, Navarre, the Basque Country and La Rioja.
Further heat warnings are in force across a large part of Spain, including Cádiz, Granada and Huelva, the Balearic Islands, several provinces of Castile and León and Castilla-La Mancha, parts of Catalonia and Galicia, Valencia and Gran Canaria.
Heat, sunshine – and thunderstorms
For much of Spain, Thursday will otherwise bring relatively stable summer weather, with clear or mostly clear skiesdominating large areas of the country.
Conditions will be somewhat different in Galicia, along the Cantabrian coast, the upper Ebro valley and parts of the Mediterranean, where the day may begin with low cloud and patches of morning fog before skies gradually clear.
Along the coasts of Galicia and the Cantabrian region, cloud could prove more persistent, with coastal mist and fogpossible.
During the afternoon, however, increasing cloud is forecast across large parts of the interior and eastern Spain, bringing the possibility of showers and thunderstorms.
These are expected to be most likely over mountainous areas in the eastern third of the country, particularly around the Iberian ranges and the eastern Baetic mountains. Weather warnings for rain and storms are also in place in parts of Andalusia, Aragón, Castilla-La Mancha and Murcia.
Canary Islands and Saharan dust
In the Canary Islands, cloudier conditions are expected across the northern parts of the higher islands, while elsewhere skies should remain largely clear.
A light calima – airborne Saharan dust – may also affect the Alboran Sea area as well as Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
Spain therefore faces a day of contrasting summer weather: scorching temperatures and strong sunshine across much of the country, but with locally heavy showers and thunderstorms developing elsewhere during the afternoon.
For many people in southern Spain, particularly Andalusia, the coast will once again provide the most tempting escape from the heat, with sea breezes offering some welcome relief as temperatures soar inland.
