The expected drop in temperatures predicted for this Monday may not occur in the end and further lengthen the already endless heat wave that lbiza and Formentera endure, the longest since the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) records began. As it will be remembered, this heat wave began last 13th and on Sunday it will be 12 days old, when up to now the longest duration waves have lasted for a maximum of 6 days.
Although the AEMET only makes forecasts three days ahead, its delegate in the Balearic Islands, María José Guerrero, anticipates that “on Monday we will only have a slight drop in temperatures of between one and two degrees. Practically it will not be noticed. Just as we continue with the heat wave, we do not see a clear decrease (of temperatures). We are having a very hot summer,” she admits.
This minimum relief maintains what will be the longest heat wave ever suffered in this archipelago. Because Guerrero recalls that for a continuous period of great heat to be considered as a wave there must be three circumstances: maximum temperatures that do not fall below 36 degrees, that they are maintained for more than three consecutive days and that these values are recorded in at least 10% of the AEMET stations that have an antiquity of at least thirty years during which it has been possible to verify the reliability of their records. And this wave is scrupulously fulfilling these parameters.
For today, Aemet has established a yellow alert in the Pitiusas where it was expected to reach maximum temperatures of 36 degrees, especially in the west of the island, Sant Antoni and Sant Josep. For tomorrow, Friday, there is no alert, but on Saturday the yellow alert returns with temperatures of 36 degrees.
Yesterday a 34 degree maximum was recorded in Sant Antoni, Sant Joan and Formentera, while in Ibiza, the maximum was 32 degrees and at the airport, 31.
Asked when relief from the heat would be noticed, the delegate tentatively admits that “at the end of the month temperatures could be softened. Now we are in a full heat wave (hottest period of the year) that lasts from July 15th to August 15th, “recalls Guerrero warning that this heat wave, despite being already the second this year, also an unprecedented fact so far, may not be the last.
From tropical nights to torrid nights this heat wave
The delegate of the AEMET in the Balearic Islands goes further and no longer speaks of tropical nights – those in which the thermometers do not fall below 20 degrees, but of torrid nights in which the minimum temperatures do not fall below 25 degrees.
Without going any further, last night it was 25 degrees on Formentera, 22 in Ibiza, 22 at the airport, 20 in Sant Antoni and 19 in Sant Joan.
The temperature of the sea water is at levels of the end of August, which places us before a very warm autumn with possible episodes of cold snaps. Guerrero reveals that in the buoy of sa Dragonera temperatures of up to 30 degrees were registered last Tuesday 19th that during Wednesday had been slightly reduced up to 29,9 degrees and that today, Thursday, they were 28,8 degrees, almost one less. In any case the sea water is very warm, well above the 26/28 degrees that marks the end of August after many days exposed to the most extreme heat.
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