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ARCHIVED - Spanish heatwave leaves more than 500 dead
The scorching temperatures will return to Spain later in the week
The intense, long-lasting second heatwave of the year officially came to an end on Monday July 18 after Spain sweltered for nine solid days of temperatures as high as 45ºC. While most of us grumble about the uncomfortable heat that makes even the smallest chores so much more difficult, there is a far deadlier side to heatwaves that claim hundreds of lives in this country each year.
According to data provided this Monday by the Carlos III Health Institute, in the first seven days of the heat wave – from July 10 to Saturday 16 – 510 people have died from causes that can be attributed to the heat, 150 of them on Saturday and 123 on Friday.
This weather phenomenon also disproportionately affects the elderly: of the total, it’s estimate that 321 of the fatalities were over the age of 85.
Although Spain is technically out of the danger zone and meteorologists have ruled out another heatwave in the near future, Bea Hervella from Aemet has warned that “the heat... will remain in some areas.”
While daytime temperatures are expected to fall by between 4 and 8 degrees in the west of Spain, the mercury is predicted to rise significantly further north on Tuesday July 19, where red weather warnings remain in place in several provinces.
For the rest of the country, the thermometer drop is caused by the movement of a DANA, which has been camped off the Portuguese Atlantic coast, towards the northeast of Spain, allowing the cooler Atlantic air to sweep across the Peninsula.
The situation is far from stable, however, and Aemet forecasts yet another rise in temperature of five or six degrees in the west come Wednesday. By Thursday, the heat will again have extended down as far as the Valencian Community and Canary Islands, and the mercury is not expected to dip much lower than 35ºC.
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