The good news is that July has given us a break. The bad news is that August looks really bad

July ends with something we haven’t seen for weeks: a day when 40 degrees weren’t reached in any provincial capital. Finally the respite has arrived and the materialization of the end of the heat wave has relieved the thermometers throughout the country. And we had better take advantage of it because, well, the meteorological models point because August is going to start with another heat wave. Not for nothing is August 6 known as “the hottest day of the year.”

A new heat wave? from the weekend, especially in the southwest, you will begin to notice how this respite that the weather has given us is running out. There will already be areas of the country close to 40 degrees and, from then on, the heat will spread like an oil slick, putting almost the entire peninsula above 35 (the Cantabrian coast and some areas of the Mediterranean coast, perhaps a little below).

In other words, temperatures will gradually rise to 44 degrees in much of the country in the middle of the week and will remain there until at least Sunday. It is not clear if it will be a heat wave (we already know that the requirements to consider it such are quite strict), but everything points to it being so.

tropical nights. But if this more than probable ‘heat wave’ does not seem to reach the maximum of the last wave, what is going to rise (and a lot) are the minimum temperatures. That translates to a term we’ve been hearing a lot lately: “tropical nights.” That is, nights with such a high temperature that they prevent us from sleeping comfortably.

What we interpret as discomfort and inability to fall asleep has deeper roots in the close relationship between body (core) temperature and sleep. The regulation of body temperature and circadian rhythms are intimately linked. Under normal conditions, our temperature drops when we wake up and rises when we go to sleep.

However, when temperatures are continuously very high, the hormonal mechanisms that regulate circadian rhythms become uncoordinated and the chemical signals we receive are often contradictory. The result is clear: we have a hard time sleeping. That is what we have suffered and what we will continue to suffer.

Because yes, the minimum will go up a lot. At the climatological level, that limit temperature is 20 degrees and, truthfully, the situation looks bad. As of Tuesday, cities like Santander, Valladolid or Badajoz will not drop below 20 degrees; and cities like Madrid, Jaén or Barcelona will not drop below 25. Sleeping is going to become, again and throughout the week, a risky sport.

The hottest day of the year. Above all, because this new episode of heat coincides with what is statistically the hottest day of the year: August 6. As they explained to us in eltiempo.es, “this day has the highest average temperature at the national level, with 24.3ºC” and “the average maximum temperature is also the highest, with 30.7ºC”. We do not know if this 2022 we will have a hellish day again on August 6, but it is worth going prepared,

We remain optimistic about August. However, this is not a surprise. We already expected that the first part of the month would continue with temperatures above normal. Up to a degree and a half above the average in the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. Only the Canary Islands, the coast of Galicia and the Cantabrian coast were going to be saved from the rise in temperatures. Now it remains to be hoped that the month follows its script and after this more than probable heat wave, a milder temperature prevails. Cross our fingers.

Image | ECMWF