Unusually high temperatures to hit western Europe

Temperatures in Western Europe will be unusually high in the coming days. This is the first wave of intense heat since spring this year.

Throughout April, large parts of Europe experienced below-normal temperature trends, with winds often emanating from a north-easterly direction. However, over the past week or so, weather patterns have rearranged to encourage more of a south or south-westerly feed of air across Europe, and temperatures have been picking up as a result.

Through the coming week, as a southerly flow continues, temperatures across much of western Europe will increase further, such that maximum daily temperatures relative to average will be among some of the highest in the world at this time. Through much of Spain and France, daytime highs are likely to rise into the mid-30s celsius this week, representing anomalies in excess of 10C above norma.

Later this week and into the weekend, it looks likely that parts of Iberia and northern Africa will become even hotter still, with some forecast models hinting that maximum daytime temperatures may break 40C in parts of central and southern Spain. While not record-breaking at this stage, these would still represent temperatures about 10 to 12 degrees above the seasonal norm.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, catastrophic floods continue to affect parts of Queensland in Australia, forcing people to evacuate. Although the heavy rains that caused the floods have cooled, the river level has continued to rise and peaked over the past few days. Southeast winds are likely to cause more rainfall to coastal Queensland this weekend, with wind speeds likely to exceed 160km/h.

It is also looking windy and extremely wet across north-western portions of western Australia too this week, with 100 to 150mm of rain expected in the next few days, leading to a flood risk in these areas.

Phuong Hoai – 20/05/2022(TN&MT)

Theo Compiled from Guardian