Three people cross the diagonal in Barcelona this week, in the middle of a heat wave, sheltering from the sun.massiliano minocri
The city of Barcelona broke a heat record this Wednesday, with the highest low temperature in the 110 years of records by the Observatori Fabra: it did not fall below 29.5 degrees in 24 hours. In addition, the maximum temperature reached 38.5 degrees, the second highest since data, after the record of 39 degrees in 1982. The average temperature of the day was also scandalous: 33.4 degrees, turning the city into an oven, with a stifling and unusual heat that has reached the 30 degree mark in the nights. The Fabra Observatory, inaugurated in 1904, is the oldest in the city. Its weather station is recognized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as a “centennial long-term observation station”.
Beyond Wednesday’s numbers, what is remarkable about the current heatwave, which will add up to four days this Thursday, is the persistence of these high temperatures, which are heating up buildings and asphalt without giving them a break to cool down.
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Barcelona City Council activated the daily alert phase of the heat plan on Wednesday ahead of the peak of high temperatures. After activating this phase, the Emergency and Social Emergency Center (Cuesb), in coordination with the municipal civil protection service and in cooperation with the Red Cross, launched the street prevention device to distribute information, caps and canteens to homeless people in vulnerable situations. The daytime heat warning complements the hot nights emergency phase that the city council activated this Tuesday, which is continuing amid forecasts of prolonged high overnight temperatures.
During the current episode, night-time temperatures were particularly hot in the Raval district, where the narrow streets, dense population and abundance of substandard housing meant that neighbors were out late into the night. On Sunday and Monday the overnight low temperature did not drop below 27.8 degrees, on Tuesday it was 29.1 and last night 28.8 degrees. This summer, since June 1, the neighborhood in the Ciutat Vella district has accumulated 29 hot nights, with the classification being for nights when the temperature does not drop below 25 degrees.
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