The high heat combined with humidity is making this time especially uncomfortable.
In recent days, much of Europa It’s been a furnace for the latest in a series of heat waves scorching. Many are wondering when will this heat end unbearable
almost all France carry several days on alert due to high temperatures, with thermometers exceeding 30ºC throughout the country. The extreme heat comes as the country faced the anniversary of the 2003 disaster, in which 15,000 people died due to extreme heat on August 11.
Since mid-June, Italia suffers almost constant heat waves. They are expected record temperatures of more than 40ºC in some areas of the country. On Monday, authorities declared 40 departments on orange alert due to a heat wave, and on Tuesday morning only nine remained. The city’s hospitals have recorded a 20% increase in the number of people who come to emergencies for diseases related to heat.
Since Friday, Spain faces what is probably the most intense summer heat wave. According to the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), temperatures could exceed 40ºC in areas of Andalusia and the northeast. The high temperatures and the dry weather have also increased the fire risk in many places.
Monday was the hottest day so far this year in the United Kingdomwith temperatures of 34ºC registered in the area of Cambridge.
These episodes coincide with the announcement by the experts of the Barcelona Institute for Global Healthwhich revealed that the Scorching heat killed more than 47,000 people in Europe last year.
Although it is expected that this extreme heat streak disappears to many before the weekendit is possible that the high temperatures of this year have not yet come to an end. This is what experts predict.
Why is it so hot in central and western Europe?
Lars Lowinski, meteorologist for ‘Weather & Radar’, says that a combination of heat and humidity It’s making the weather really uncomfortable for many across Western Europe.
It seems to be warmer when the humidity is high because of the amount of moisture in the air. Our body regulates temperature naturally through sweat. Sweat that evaporates into the ambient air cools us. When there is more humidity in the air, sweat it doesn’t evaporate as muchwhich means we feel warmer.
“This same humid heat is affecting a large part of this week Francelos Benelux countriesas well as Germany and other Central European countries,” he explains.
Lowinski adds that the heat is also affecting the extreme north of Europe, beyond the Arctic Circle to Spitsbergen. There the temperatures reached 20ºC on Sunday, a record for the month of August.
This spell of extreme heat is expected to disappear for many before the end of the week, but It might not be the end of high temperatures yet of this year. This is what experts predict.
When will the heat wave end in Europe?
In the next few days, the heat wave will begin to remit in Europe. But conditions will persist in parts of the east and south of the continent.
“Thus, the peak of the current heat wave will basically be reached (on August 12 and 13) in Western Europe, and a gradual cooling starting Wednesday“, afirma Lowinski.
“Meanwhile, eastern and especially southeastern Europe will see much warmer than average conditions into the weekend. This comes after a hot July that has at times broken records in those areas, especially in the Balkans“.
ADVERTISINGWhy is it so hot now in Europe?
“On this occasion, the heat is due to a plume of very warm air from North Africa and Spaindragged north by a low pressure system in the Atlantic,” explains Lowinski.
“Although these incursions of warm air from the south are not unusual during the summer, there has been a tendency for these warm air masses to be even warmer due to climate change“.
Sea surface temperatures across Europe have also been high, he adds, especially in the Mediterraneanwhere sometimes they are 4 to 6ºC warmer than normal for August.
“The water temperature in the Mediterranean it usually ranges between 26 and 30ºC, which increases the heat and humidity, so coastal areas will not see much relief.
ADVERTISINGWill the heat continue in Europe for the rest of August?
Although long-term weather forecasts are sometimes uncertain, Lowinski says we can glean some general trends rather than precise predictions. And overall, the trends show that the warmer than normal conditionsespecially in southern and southeastern Europe.
If the winds turn south again, central and western Europe could also suffer new warm or very warm spells.
What can be said is that the very warm waters of the Mediterranean and many coasts of Western Europe will continue to be a problem in the coming weeks, since the sea can store a lot of heat. Water temperatures change much more slowly than land temperatures.
“This basically means that all the heat stored in the sea will continue to favor a warmer and more humid weather unless there is a major change in the weather pattern sometime in the fall,” says Lowinski, who also warns that these higher sea surface temperatures and more moisture in the atmosphere also mean more fuel for rain and thunderstorms.
ADVERTISING“This is something we have already seen this summer in some parts of the continent and more thunderstorms, sometimes with torrential rains and flash floodsaffect a parts of central Europe particularly in the coming days.”
