The IPMA (Portuguese Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) has announced that “maximum temperatures will exceed 40°C on the continent” and that there will be “tropical nights” at the end of the week.
The coming week will bring plenty of heat to the national territory, due to the “formation of an anticyclone aloft in the Mediterranean and near the Iberian Peninsula”, according to information provided by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
This is a phenomenon which, according to the latest forecasts, “will give rise to a circulation with a meridional component which will bring to the Iberian Peninsula a very warm and dry air mass, with very high temperature values aloft”.
In the face of such a scenario, the consequences of which should start to be felt from next Friday, the experts at the meteorological institute point out that these “air masses are creating the conditions for maximum temperatures to exceed 40°C on the continent”, as well as “tropical nights”, with “minimum temperatures in excess of 20°C”.
Asked about the possibility of a heatwave in France, IPMA said: “This scenario, which begins on June 23, will have to continue for at least six days for there to be a heatwave. It is not yet possible to say that we will have a heat wave, but we will certainly have a period of hot weather”.
Apart from the fact that temperatures during this period will vary “from region to region”, the forecast shows that it is mainly in the south of the country that thermometers are likely to reach higher levels, with “maxima of over 40°C and minima of over 20°C expected”.
The Rural Fire Danger (RFD) will therefore “naturally increase throughout the territory, and it is expected that in areas where severe and extreme meteorological drought is declared, municipalities will present very high or maximum RFD values”, according to IPMA.
As for the possibility that this extreme heat will also be associated with the appearance of thunderstorms, the experts predict a “stable situation”, so that “the appearance of thunderstorms will be unlikely” – although “the possibility exists”.
For the weekend starting tomorrow, and after a few days that will also be quite warm, a “general drop in temperatures is forecast, down to the values recorded at the beginning of the week”. The forecast also calls for “the appearance of showers in the North and Centre, possibly accompanied by thunderstorms in the afternoon”.
According to the meteorological institute, and as a foretaste of what’s to come from Monday onwards, “temperatures will remain in the same range as at the start of the week, with showers expected again in the North and Centre, possibly accompanied by thunderstorms”.
