Very high temperatures expected until August 6
A “hot weather episode”, forecast for between today and Wednesday in mainland Portugal, is expected to be “considerably severe” due to its duration and maximum temperatures (of between 36º and 44º C), IPMA, the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere has warned.
In a statement released today, IPMA states that the episode of hot weather is forecast to continue “until August 6, with a high degree of confidence” – although with a slight temporary drop in maximum temperatures on the west coast today and, possibly, on Tuesday.
“Maximum temperature values will be above average, or well above average, for the time of year”, so “it is very likely” that in a large part of the mainland, particularly in the interior, “a heat wave will be recorded”.
“This episode of hot weather is expected to be considerably severe, both due to its duration and the maximum temperatures, which will be very high,” IPMA reiterates, indicating that from Sunday onwards maximum temperatures are likely to vary between 36º and 40ºC (with the exception of only a few locations along the coast, where they will be lower, but not by much).
In the Alentejo interior, the Tejo Valley and the most inland part of the Douro Valley, maximum temperatures are expected to reach values between 41º and 44ºC.
Added to these high daytime temperatures, “tropical nights are expected across the entire territory”, with minimum temperatures varying between approximately 20º and 25ºC from Monday onwards. This particularly bodes badly for firefighters, as they cannot expect much in the way of humidity to help with combat during hours of darkness.
As a result of all these forecasts, Portugal’s mainland districts – with the exception of the Algarve – will be under an orange warning on Sunday, due to the “persistence of very high maximum temperature values”. Orange is the second most severe weather warning, red being the worst.
Until Sunday morning, 17 districts – Bragança, Viseu, Évora, Porto, Guarda, Vila Real, Setúbal, Santarém, Viana do Castelo, Lisbon, Leiria, Beja, Castelo Branco, Aveiro, Coimbra, Portalegre and Braga – will be under yellow warning, also due to the high maximum temperature values.
The Algarve (Faro district) will be under a yellow warning through the weekend.
According to IPMA, this latest episode of hot weather is associated with “the joint action of an anticyclone located northeast of the Azores archipelago, cresting towards the Bay of Biscay, and a depression trough that extends from North Africa to the Iberian Peninsula, which in its circulation transports masses of very hot and dry tropical air, originating in North Africa.”
But before we all start complaining, think of Turkey: there people have been suffering the misery of wildfires (just like Portugal) under temperatures that reached 50ºC last weekend. We are still getting through the summer fairly lightly.
Source material: LUSA
