heat

This heat wave has very little normal because of a “stationary” situation

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We approach the culminating point of the heat wave. In many places the thermometers have already exceeded the mark of the 40º Celsius and the situation will last throughout the week, according to the forecasts. The question for many is to what extent this is strange in the middle of August. In full heat wave. Yesterday we lived that could be the first day of the new heat wave that looms over Spain. During the day the State Meteorology Agency (AEMET) registered temperatures above 43º In two seasons in the south of the Peninsula (Badajoz, and Almadén, in Ciudad Real), but many more registered maxims above 40º. A heat, normal? The last days of July and early August tend to be the hottest of the year. That is why it is logical to think that we are simply at the heat of the cannula. However, there are ways to verify that this is not the case. First, the terminology used: heat waves are, by definition, abnormal heat situations. Although there is no strict definition of what a heat wave is, we can resort to Aemet as standard. This situation occurs when at least 10% of the weather stations collect temperatures in the 95th of the distribution for at least three consecutive days. The agency has warned of the possibility that we are in the first days of a heat wave, it has not confirmed that we are already in one since we are still talking about forecasts. Of course, the probability assigned to the event is high, of 80%. More than 10. Another way of seeing the uniqueness of this event is through thermal anomalies, the difference between the temperatures that we predict or observed and the average temperature that would correspond to these dates in a certain place or area. According to Physicist Sergio Escama points out in Meteoredthe weather models advance thermal anomalies between 10º and 12º that will affect “wide areas” not only of the southern peninsular, also the center and interior. The heat will also be elevated for dates in the northern half, although foreseeably not until the same point. The answer, also in the atmosphere. If we want to understand what has normal and what is anomalous this situation, we can also look at the situation of the atmosphere. According to Details Aemetwe are faced with a “quite stationary, with high Atlantic pressures extending over a large part of the territory and low pressures to the peninsular southwest”. This situation facilitates the entry of warm and dry air from North Africa. The situation is aggravated by the fact that we are in summer, which implies a high degree of insolation due to the longest days and the greatest angle with which the sun affects the territory. What can we expect from the heat wave. The agency foresee That the maxims today continue to rise, with the mercury exceeding the 40º “in large areas of the southern half of the Atlantic aspect and surroundings of the Miño,” according to the agency in its forecast. Tomorrow Tuesday could also register temperatures above 40º in much of the southern half of the Atlantic aspect and also in the depressions of the Northeast. Thus, Aemet He has activated notices For extreme temperatures in almost the entire peninsula, with several orange notices for important risks in part of the southern quadrant, Andalusia and areas of Galicia. Many of these notices will remain active during the highest heat hours at least between today and Thursday. The northern hemisphere, to the red red. The anomalous situation that affects our environment has its reflection in the data at a global scale: the northern hemisphere is also in a situation of warm anomaly. According to the data of Climate Resanalyzer (of July 29), the average temperature in this hemisphere is 22.43º. This represents a thermal anomaly of 0.75º with respect to the average of the years between 1991 and 2020, but an anomaly of 1.14º above the average of the years between 1979 and 2000. This implies that we are before the third most warm August in the northern hemisphere, behind the year 2023 and tied with 2024. In Xataka | The Catalan and Segura basins toured different paths during the drought. Now they share something: the passage of the trough Image | ECMWF

In the heat and extreme summer storms in Menorca, Aemet has just added one more risk: “Meteotsunamis”

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A trough travels the peninsula and, like The experts advancedtheir impacts begin to be noticed today. These impacts have led to the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet) to issue various notices, Among them one focused on the risk of Rissagasthe phenomenon also known as “Meteotsunami”. Notice by Rissagas. In addition to the notices for rains and storms (which bind to notices still in force for temperatures of more than 36º in areas of Albacete and Murcia), Aemet has issued various coastal notices that will remain active during the next few days in the Mediterranean, specifically in Catalonia and Balearic Islands. Among these notices is an active one on the coast of the island of Menorca, since there are expected sea level oscillations that could reach 0.7 meters. This oscillation of the island region responds in the Balearic Islands At the end Rissagabut it is also usually called “Meteotsunami” for presenting some parallelism with the seismic phenomenon. Rissagas or meteotsunamis. As we pointed out before, the Rissagas They are abrupt oscillations of sea level. As explained some time ago Aemet’s then territorial delegate in Illes Balears, Mª José Guerrero, these phenomena occur only in coves and ports “with a certain geometry.” As with the tsunamis, these begin with the sea by backward, which can leave the small boats of the fishing and sports ports stranded. In a matter of minutes, the waters return to the port, and do so with a flood that can drag the vessels and overflow the docks. On average, these oscillations are usually about 50 centimeters. However, cases have been found in which they reached several meters. “Tsunamis“Meteorological. As its name suggests, the “Meteotsunami” differs from a tsunami in his Meteorological origin and not seismic. According to Aemetthese phenomena are produced by “small although sudden changes in atmospheric pressure (1-3 hectopascal) derived from the passage of fronts, gravitational waves, turbonada lines and in general phenomena associated with convection.” First red notice of Aemet. The forecasts speak of significant impacts beyond the risks on the coast. Aemet’s forecasts They alert today “showers and storms with a probability of being strong, even locally very strong”, which will affect large areas of Catalonia, Pyrenees, northern zone of the Valencian Community and east of the Iberian system. Tomorrow these showers and storms are expected to affect both the Mediterranean coast of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands themselves. Thus, the agency has issued notices of different categories distributed throughout the center and northern Mediterranean slope and the Balearic Islands. Today’s notices include a red notice (extreme risk) due to rains in the central depression of Barcelona. In that area, up to 60 mm of rainfall could be accumulated in one hour and up to 120 mm in a matter of three or four hours. Waiting for a change. In addition to the red notice due to extreme risk, the agency maintains various orange notices (for important risk) during today’s and tomorrow, both for rains and storms. The situation is expected Start to appease on Fridayalthough some episodes torments are expected to continue during that day. In Xataka | The heat of the last weeks has been so extreme that we have already exceeded tropical nights: the equatorial nights are here Image | Menorchin / Aemet

The urban heat island effect

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Summer is here and with him the desire of millions of people to escape the city. The east desire is more than the mere enjoyment of the beach, leisure or rural landscapes, there is also the prevailing need for escape heat. And part of the fault of this lies in the so -called urban heat island effect. What is the urban heat island effect Heat island? The term refers to the fact that cities They tend to accumulate heatwhich implies that the temperature in them is usually higher than in their surroundings. This effect can be felt during the day but it is perhaps at night when the difference between urban temperature and that of its surroundings is greater. The difference can be several degrees. An estimate For example, he calculates that the difference between New York City its surroundings is around the 4th Celsius. A recent study made in five Spanish cities estimated that the average variation in Madrid was 1.3º, but in Valencia reached 4.1. The responsible team came to measure differences of up to 11 between the center and the periphery of the Spanish cities studied. How a heat island occurs The causes of the heat islands There are several and diverse. The construction materials we use tend to absorb energy that they release during the night. This makes night temperatures do not descend in the city as much as in other contexts, thus accumulating heat. The buildings, in addition, block the passage of the air that would drag the heat accumulated in the day to day, while the absence of trees and of phenomena such as the evaporation of soil water contribute to a worst thermoregulation of the system. The other great factor responsible for urban warming is human activity. Many of our activities, from driving to heating a pout generate residual heat. Even when we cool things, for example when we use the air conditioning, the thermal “balance” is positive. What factors aggravate the problem We pointed out before not all cities experience a heat island of the same magnitude. The complexity of the factors that cause this phenomenon is responsible for it. Knowing this, we can list some factors that can influence the degree in which a city stands out from its thermal environment. Among these factors We could find Population density, orientation and structure of its street, characteristics (height, materials) of its urban buildings, vegetation and trees, the passage of rivers, or its location with respect to geographical elements such as the mountains or the coast. Even the color of the buildings, including its roofs, affects the temperature differential. The heat island in the city of Paris. Copernicus Climate Change Service, ECMWF. Consequences of the heat islands The direct consequence of this phenomenon is an increase in temperatures, which in turn affects a multitude of Aspects of everyday life of whom these cities inhabit. Both at night and day. Heat can have consequences on our health and well -being: heat strokes, Difficulty reconciling sleep or to concentrate or an increase in the risk of suffering the effects of certain diseases such as cardiovascular, among other problems. Urban heat can be somewhat positive in winter or certain climates from the energy point of view, but in summer it will imply that we will spend more to cool our homes, work areas and even our refrigerators. A problem that will go to more There are two factors that invite you to think that this phenomenon and its consequences will go worse in the coming years. The first, climate change. Perhaps the phenomenon that we mostly associated with climate change is the increase in the average temperature of the planet. This temperature increase can be added to the increase associated with urban heat island, thus increasing the risks and problems associated with this phenomenon. The second factor to consider are migrations, specifically the rural exodus. A growing proportion of people live in cities, some of them already host dozens of millions of people. The biggest cities They are more susceptible to suffering the problem of urban heat island. In addition, the more people live in them, the more people the impacts of this temperature increase will be vulnerable. How to prevent the heat island effect Urbanization is a process that continues, especially in the “developing” countries, so all we can do is search ways to reduce impact of these heat islands. To do this, understanding its causes and dynamics is essential. The solutions that They have been proposed To avoid heat accumulation in cities are diverse, but the possibility that they can be implemented depends on various factors. For example, in an area still under development, we can encourage architectures that optimize air flow and reduce the presence of materials that capture heat easily. It is also important to leave spaces to non -urbanized areas, natural and seminatural environments such as parks and urban forests. The introduction of trees and other green areas () can also be feasible in already built areas. The mere Presence of trees On an avenue you can significantly reduce the insolation that reaches the ground and thereby prevent it from hot as much as it would happen without the trees. In this sense, even the use of paintings that increase the solar energy reflected again to the atmosphere (if we paint a roof or a white square, for example) it can also become a useful resource. In Xataka | An American city is “terrifying” its streets to combat heat. They have an ally: NASA Image | Fabian Lozano

A trough ready to free us from the scorching heat, but charging its price on storms

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The worst of this warm episode has not yet arrived but there are those who already have their view at its end. It is not for less, as it is customary this summer, the only thing that is helping to reduce the thermometers is the arrival of storms. And again meteorologists foresee them. Change the trend. On Friday part of the peninsula will see A new transition Meteorological: The heat episode we now live will give way to storms. These stormy episodes will affect the north third and could be strong, leaving winds of intensity and hail. Dorsal and trough. Again, the alternation between scorching heat and intense storms is given by the succession of dorsal and trough, air masses in height under the influence of high and low pressures respectively. According to explains the geographer Samuel Biener in Meteoredthe change in the situation will come from the hand of an Atlantic trough driven in turn by the undulations of the stream in jet. Two seas to red live. There is another important element in the risk that these storms suppose in summer, Remember too Biener himself. It is in the seas, and more specifically in the temperature of its surface waters. Both the Western Mediterranean and the Eastern Cantabrian They are suffering their own “heat waves”. The waters of the surface in these regions have been accumulating several degrees above what would correspond to this time of year. This increases the risk of convective storms. Heat and moisture are transmitted to the air on the surface and then this air interacts with possible cold and dry air masses such as those dragged by the rush that approaches, generating important storms that discharge the humidity and energy accumulated in the environment. Uncertainty, for now. There is still uncertainty about the evolution of this new episode of storms but The forecasts From the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet), on Friday both cloudy skies are expected and “locally with a storm” rainfall. These will circulate from the west and will end up affecting most of the north third, being especially intense in the Eastern Cantabrian and Western Pyrenees. The situation is expected to refer towards the afternoon of Saturday, although the forecasts indicate the possibility that during the day there will be “strong and accompanied by storm” rainfall between the Eastern Cantabrian and the Northeast of Catalonia. For now the agency has not issued any warning related to these storms, but it is still early to rule out a worsening of the situation. In Xataka | The heat of the last weeks has been so extreme that we have already exceeded tropical nights: the equatorial nights are here Image | ECMWF

The artificial skin that feels heat and cuts is already real. It is the first big step for robots to look more like us

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Can a robotic hand like that of Optimus or that of 1x get to feel like ours? Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University College London believe they have taken an important step in that direction. They have developed one Artificial skin Composed of a single flexible material, capable of detecting temperature, pressure, cuts and multiple simultaneous touches. All without rigid layers or sensors distributed inside. And the most promising, according to its creators, is that it can adapt to complex forms and promises a relatively simple manufacturing process: it is enough to melt it, pour it into a silicone mold, remove the internal positive and place it as a glove on a robotic structure, as shown in This demonstrative video. The nucleus of this technology is a driver hydrogel that, when combined with electric impedance (EIT) tomography, allows you to continuously register what happens on its surface. When a stimulus occurs – contract, heat or pressure – the fields are altered. The system detects not only the type of stimulus, but also its location and environmental conditions. All this is interpreted through automatic learning, with latencies that depend on the number of active channels, explain in the article published in Science Robotics. A soft membrane, millions of data The best example of the system is a robotic hand of real size, hollow inside, fully covered with this artificial skin. Instead of distributed sensors, use exclusively 32 electrodes placed on the wrist. This configuration was sufficient to extract more than 1.7 million information channels, derived from 863,040 different combinations. During the tests, the hand was exposed to different stimuli: a human finger, a thermal probe, the impact of a scalpel. In all cases it was able to distinguish the type of interaction and locate it with an average precision of about 25 millimeters above its entire surface. The interesting thing is that a sensor is not necessary for each type of stimulus. The membrane itself reacts differently depending on the intensity or nature of the contact, and it is the model of the one that identifies the most relevant signal between hundreds of thousands of possibilities. In addition to touch, this skin is able to monitor the environment. During a 100 -hour test, the system registered variations between 19 and 25 ° C and between 38 and 72% relative humidity, as details The official note of the University of Cambridge. All this with a design without rigid components, which facilitates its integration into Prosthesis, technical clothing, control surfaces or collaborative robots. Applications ranging from rehabilitation and remote exploration to the automobile sector. Of course, this development does not start from zero. In recent years we have seen other proposals that seek to endow robot sensitivity, such as This synthetic skin capable of replicating pain, This other that presumes to approach human skin as never beforeeither A capable of self -backing and recycling. What distinguishes the work of Cambridge and UCL is its radically simplified approach: a single flexible layer, without mechanical components, which centralizes all sensitivity and interprets it by software. Challenges remain in front: improve the resolution in areas far from the electrodes, reinforce the resistance of the long -term hydrogel. But paradigm shift seems to be underway. Everything indicates that it is a matter of time until we see robots not only more advanced in mobility and interaction, but also closer to us in appearance and physical sensitivity. An artificial skin like this opens the door to a new generation of machines that not only execute tasks, but also “feel” the surrounding environment. Even so, we are far from reaching the level of realism that proposes’Detroit: Become Human‘. Images | Cambridge University (1, 2, 3) | Quantic Dream In Xataka | Figure 02 has worked only for an hour. The shocking thing is that your brain already remembers and your hands “feel”

Aemet at last at the end of the extreme heat tunnel in Spain. The only problem is what comes in place

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During the last weeks, the successive hot episodes (including the heat wave at the end of June and early July) have alternated with the arrival of vaguades that offered a certain thermal relief. A relief loaded with storms and hail, but relief after all. However, the dynamics of recent weeks seem to have broken. Postbile Dana. Meteorological models foresee the possible formation of a DANA, an isolated depression at high levels. This phenomenon, Experts of Meteoredthis phenomenon would bring more hailstorms in addition to winds of consideration. Two masses of air. The arrival of the Dana would also occur in a context also different from what we had seen in a June where the heat was extended by almost the entire peninsula. The first days of this are mana are characterized however by A two -speed Spain: With a mass of cold air installed in the peninsular north and a warm air dominating the center and the south. The long -awaited thermal relief is therefore produced at two veliocities, more quickly in the north (where temperatures have already moderated) and more slowly in the south, where the thermometers will move away from the 40º mark but with a slower stabilization. Uncertain weekend. That would be the context in which Dana could make an appearance. There is still uncertainty about how the “Descolgue” of this area of ​​low pressures will be and its entry into the Peninsula, but the simulations indicate that the arrival of this phenomenon will occur between Friday 11 and Sunday 13. More storms, more hail. This leaves us a panorama of uncertainty for the end of this week: if this arrival of the DANA occurs the instability could be high and that means that we could see a new rough storms with rainfall and strong winds. According to the modelsSaturday will be the day when it is noticed in our environment. According to these same models, the most affected areas will be the north third, the northeast peninsular and part of the Mediterranean coast. A summer of uncertainties. The question now is to know what will happen after this week of relief. While the warm episodes of the last month and a half had been interspersed for days of storms and temperature reduction, these stops in the thermal escalation had been rather brief. This week however the arrival of several troughs, including an associated with the possible Dana could involve a somewhat more marked reduction in temperatures. For now it is soon to know what will happen. The Monthly prediction From the State Meteorology Agency (AEMET) points out that we still have hotter weeks than usual for these dates, between 3rd and 5th warmer than the average. The quarterly forecasts Aemet also indicates that we have several warm months ahead: 70% probability that it is. In Xataka | “Clouds of fire”, the phenomenon that makes escape from sixth generation fires can make it impossible Image | ECMWF

The heat of the summer destroys the battery of your mobile. But there is a trick to give it a second life

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It’s summer, I get home with a 20% of battery and the Telephone quite hot. I stop to see some videos in Tiktok and … I appreciate how the battery jumps directly from that 20% to 16%. What noses have just passed? Bulk. Your mobile has an internal microcontroller that uses estimation algorithms based on different variables. Voltage Temperature Current Load cycles As the battery is degraded, The system is losing precision: Errors in the calculations (something especially simple if we only make partial load cycles) accumulate, the loss of battery capacity is not exactly estimated, and this ends up translating into reading errors that directly affect the most visible point: the percentage indicated by the phone. How to know that if my battery is not well calibrated. It is quite easy to know if your mobile has or not the barefoot battery, since its behavior will be quite erratic. It goes out before reaching 0%, in upper percentages. There are notable battery jumps, more than 1%, both loading and downloading. The device never marks 100% or 1%. That a mobile has the bare battery It does not translate into a malfunction in the same: The error focuses on the visible reading that the user perceives, not on the performance of the battery itself. Why summer affects bruise. Telephone batteries have a great enemy: heat. There is no time of the year in which they suffer greater wear and are more likely to barefoot, precisely because of the acceleration of this damage they suffer. If we do not remedy it, it will be practically inevitable that we suffer sudden turns off for ignoring the exact battery percentage, and that the mobile stops to load efficiently when reaching certain percentages (fast from 20%, slow from 80%). How to calibrate a battery. Calibrate the battery It is nothing more than the process to help software to get precise readings about the real capacity of the battery. We seek to learn new vacuum points (0%) and full (100%), so the process is something drastic. Load the phone to the fullest and leave it, at least, a couple more hours loading. Download the phone completely and leave it a few hours without lighting. By battery protection, there is some reserve capacity after that 0% that is not lost until a few hours. Load the phone up to 100%, and leave it an additional time until the phone reaches the maximum load point. Avoid using applications that promise this purpose: none works. The only way to force calibration is to perform this process manually. Is it advisable to calibrate the battery? Evidence about calibrating the battery is still limited. There are those who aim to do them every three monthsbut if we do not observe anomalous behavior, stress the battery at this level may not be recommended. Calibration is necessary when readings are wrong and end up translating into a real problem to estimate how much battery we have left. The manufacturers are in full war to achieve batteries that there are many more cycles to go down to 80%below which the industry considers the replacement of it. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Traveling by plane with a monstrous battery sounds great. Until airport safety thinks

Spain promised them very happy as the power of the data centers. Did not have the heat waves

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On July 19, 2002, at 06:33 PST, Google and Oracle Data Centers in London They stopped working. The reason was not a human or electrical failure. The only thing that happened is that 40 ° C were exceeded in the British capital, and the cooling systems of that data center could not support those temperatures. The result: falls of multiple services for hours. It was a dangerous advance (and we are talking about London, which is not especially hot) for data centers, especially considering what comes to us. Climate change also threatens data centers. The only good news of this summer’s extreme heat is that It will be carried compared to the one in the coming years. The theme, which is worrisome to humans, has a surprise derivative: these extreme temperatures are going to be a colossal challenge for data centers. We do not stop seeing record temperatures one summer after another, and that will test the cooling systems of those centers. Hello, cooling. There are no definitive data on the temperature at which data centers must work, and while certain experts They recommend that work in a range of 18 to 27 ºC, others They hold that the range must be even cooler, between 17 and 21 ºC. And of course, that is only achieved with powerful air and liquid cooling systems. Heat comes out. If it is more hot, it is necessary to refrigerate more, and that imposes greater electrical consumption and therefore, a greater electricity bill. Of not controlling those temperatures the efficiency of the components is decreasing. As in mobile. It is exactly the same thing that happens in our mobiles and computers when they overheat: if the cooling systems fail to bother those temperatures, The ‘throttling’ is normally produced: The components “go round” to consume less and dissipate less heat. And the water, too. In many data centers liquid cooling also plays a fundamental role, and in the face of heat waves, water consumption also rises. That is especially worrying now that Big Tech have announced that they will invest tens of billions of dollars in new data centers for AI. Liquid cooling to power. In those facilities dedicated to AI a huge amount of chips accumulates in small spaces, which makes liquid cooling solutions much more appropriate. And the same thing happens again: before extreme temperatures, it is up to “climb the cooling systems to deal with possible overheating. Evaporative cooling. Of course, engineers who develop these types of projects go to solutions to try to avoid problems, especially when data centers are in areas where summers are especially extreme. There come techniques coom the Direct evaporative coolingin which the refrigerated and humidified air is directly entered the data center. There are other techniques such as water cooling towers and of course an intelligent management of air flow management is optimal. Be careful where you look up your data center. That makes it more and more important to choose the ideal location for new data centers. In Spain Aragon is becoming In an absolutely protagonist region. There are several projects in which Big Tech will put (theoretically) in progress data centers in this autonomous community, although the risk of extreme temperatures there is not so high as would be further south of the peninsula. But with increasingly high temperatures in summer, what can be done? Ice cream clusters. The option in some cases is simply to choose locations in which the weather is much cooler … or even icy. Facebook has already built several Data centers in Lulea (Sweden) In 2013, but in Spain we have an even more striking case: the Social Security CPD He moved from Madrid to Soria for the simple reason that it is colder there. That, among other things, allowed to save The 150,000 euros that would have cost the cooling of these systems in Madrid during the summer. Image | Goal In Xataka | We have calculated how much money the Big Tech are being spent on data centers. The numbers are dizzy

Playing video games in the middle of summer and with this heat is a horrible experience. I have found the solution in the cloud

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Play on PC is very good Until summer arrives. To a hot room as is my office, the hot air is added that, desperate to compete against Cordoba heat, manage the six fans located in my tower. The feeling is … regular. If I leave the tower on the floor they end up warming my legs. If I upload it to the table, the noise of the fans becomes even more evident and the temperature increases equally. The same happens with the Rog Ally, console that I love But that if it already has quite high temperatures, in summer suffers even more. I have found the solution in a technology that generates opinions of the most varied and that personally, it seems to me the future: the cloud. The heat. Córdoba is currently in orange alert. The asphalt has reached 57.3ºCthe grass in the shade to the almost 27ºC and the maxims exceed 40ºC. I write these lines at 10:40 on Wednesday and we are already at 30ºC. At night it does not cool and opening the windows is like look at the doors of Mordor. Thus, the solution passes through air conditioning, fans and infinite patience. Image: Olivier Collet The components. Electronic components and heat They do not get along. Let’s say they are obliged to understand each other, but excess heat is not good for a computer or for any device. The cooling systems By air, which are those that usually assemble the vast majority of computers and consoles, will refrigerate depending on the ambient temperature. If in a room is hot, the cooling will be less effective than if the room is cold. Fresquibiris. In addition to cleaning the fans and the interior of the PC, which must be done as long as a quick solution could be to put the air-conditioning For a while to cool the room. The problem is that, on the one hand, it is possible that not all people have an air conditioning device in the room or that, on the other hand, the air conditioning is centralized and we have to put it throughout the house when we only want to cool a single stay. My case. I have a temperature sensor in the office. In the morning, at 8:30, the ambient temperature is 31ºC. If I put the air conditioning to work to reduce the temperature to 26ºC. If I remove the room, it ends up reaching 34ºC. Taking into account that the ideal ambient temperature is between 18ºC and 25ºC, you can imagine how pleasant it is to complete the expansions of ‘Guild Wars 2‘or shoot in’Delta Force‘On a PC that at 18:00 is already asking for clemency and mercy. I cannot compete against environmental heat, but I can stop the heat generated by the PC. As? Roughlymaking it work much more slowly. That, a priori, is incompatible with playing in a decent quality, and it is. Unless you do it in the cloud. GeForce Now | Image: Xataka Looking for the fresco. Playing in the cloud has a series of disadvantages that are evident: you depend on having Internet connection, you are tied to a subscription and Not all games are available. The advantages, however, are that the cloud is agnostic to the hardware (I can play in my tower, but also from the mobile, From the laptop used at the university or from the ROG Ally) and does not require the computer to be fully. Just an Internet connection. The game is executed on a server and we receive the image and send the inputs in real time. A matter of temperatures. To give a quick example, playing ‘Guild Wars 2’ in a room at 27ºC The temperature of the CPU goes from 55.4ºC to exceed 70ºC. The GPU, meanwhile, goes from 35ºC to about 55ºC. If I launch the same game, but in the cloud (Geforce Now in my case), the temperature goes from about 55ºC to 57ºC, while the GPU passes from 35ºC to 37.9ºC degrees. ‘Delta Force’ is not in Geforce Now, so I can’t play it in the cloud, but it comes to the hair to show how temperatures change. The processor goes from 55ºC to 68ºC, while the GPU goes from 35ºC to be around 60ºC. That is also noticeable in the noise of the fans, which turn at a speed far higher than when they are in Standby. Asus Rog Ally | Image: Xataka The Rog Ally case. Asus’s portable console is my header device to play titles like ‘Devil IV‘And even’ Guild Wars 2 ‘connecting it to a USB and HDMI hub. If you use it in performance mode (25W), the console reaches 80-85ºC with relative ease, not to mention the battery to make a breath. Playing at the same game in Geforce Now I can do it not only in better graphic quality and with more fps, but putting the console in Eco mode, with a temperature that does not pass from 55ºC, more silent fans and greater autonomy. That, in hand and long, it shows. In short accounts. If the temperature is a problem and we have good access to the Internet, the cloud can be an option if we want to continue playing without making more firewood. In addition, the subscription does not have to be eternal. It can be used during the hottest months and then play again when temperatures fall. Cover image | Unspash In Xataka | I’ve been playing video games for years and now the first thing I do before buying them is simple: look what they are in the cloud

While France and Switzerland turn off reactors by heat, Spain continues to generate electricity. The difference is in the forecast

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Europe is living Your worst heat wave with temperatures that have exceeded 40 ° C in several countries. The most unheard of, if one can see the situation, is that some European plants have had to close temporarily. An unusual fact. The heat not only feels in the streets: it is also affecting the heart of the European energy system. According to Euronews, This week three nuclear reactors have been disconnected in France and Switzerland for the temperature rise in the rivers they use to cool. In Girfch, to the south of France, one of the reactors stopped as the Garona River approached at 28 ° C. In Switzerland, the Beznau Central did the same: one of the reactors was out of service and the second was operating in half capacity by heat in the Aare River. Preventive measures. The reason behind this temporal closures responds to an environmental regulation that forces to reduce production when river water is excessively heated, since it could affect the ecosystem by being returned even longer, such as have detailed in Euronews. In addition, restrictions or power reductions have been applied in French centrals such as Buity, Blayais and Cruas. The origin of the problem. Water is key in any nuclear power plant. Without it, there is no way to keep the reactor temperature under control. But with increasingly hot rivers, especially during heat wavesthat function begins to fail. The worst thing is that many of these plants were built between 60 and 80, when climate change was not a factor to take into account. Now the consequences are clear: According to The New York TimesFrance could end up losing up to four times more electricity in summer if this type of closures becomes usual. A problem that aggravates. During the heat waves, more electricity is needed to light the air conditioners or fans, so the demand increases at the same time as the generation capacity falls. This has generated a domino effect on the European electricity market. According to the economistthe megavatio hour has come to double in a matter of days in France, affecting countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium that depend on gala electricity. And in Spain? Despite registering equal or even higher temperatures, Spain has not had to close any heat power plant. As He explained The economist, the key is in infrastructure and design. Unlike France, where many plants depend directly on rivers such as Garona or Rhone, in Spain solutions such as cooling towers have been adopted, which cool the water before returning it to the natural environment. A paradigmatic example is the Trillo plant, whose ability to operate during heat waves is due to this type of system. Also, like We have detailed in this mediumSpanish nuclear power plants are designed with a triple cooling system: a closed primary circuit that contains the fuel bars, a secondary circuit that generates the steam to move the turbines, and a third external circuit that introduces cold water – teacher of rivers, reservoirs or towers – to condense the steam. In addition, after Fukushima, all centrals incorporated portable and self -employment systems, capable of maintaining cooling functions even to climatic emergencies or electrical cuts. More interconnection? The situation that France and Switzerland are going through is not an isolated event, but a symptom of an still fragmented energy Europe. While in southern France reactors by heat go out, Spain keeps its centrals operational and could even contribute more electricity to the continent if there are better interconnections. These situations show the bottleneck that limits the electrical export capacity of the Iberian Peninsula. Spain has a nuclear park adapted to heat and a growing renewable base – specially solar and wind – that could serve as an energy lung for a Europe increasingly affected by extreme events. The energy future of the continent not only goes to adapt to heat, but also by connecting better. Image | Pixabay Xataka | Israel has been bombing the nuclear facilities that build other countries around its surroundings. This is the real risk of collapse

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