heat

León wants to start a biomass macroplant to heat 28,000 homes. The neighbors are afraid of something: the wind

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“Mayor! Where are you?” The cry echoed this Wednesday in the central Plaza de San Marcelo. According to local chronicleshundreds of people responded to the call of the Barrio de la Lastra Neighborhood Association to try to stop the construction of the gigantic biomass plant planned in the south of the city. The point is that this is not an isolated march: the residents of La Lastra and Puente Castro have joined forces in a joint mobilization that reflects the fatigue of the southern neighborhoods in the face of an imminent environmental impact. But beyond the noise of the banners, there is a very specific fear. As Ruth Sanz explainsneighborhood spokesperson for La Lastra, the big hidden problem will come “when the wind changes direction.” The citizen warning is blunt: if the plant comes into operation, not only will the smell reach other neighborhoods in the capital, but the air will carry harmful substances. For this reason, with the motto of “our health is not for sale”, the neighbors demand that the excavators be stopped. The beginning of the indignation. To understand this social outbreak you have to look at the offices. As detailed in the specialized magazine Rethemethe project promoted by the Junta de Castilla y León and the City Council aims to create a “Sustainable Heat Network”. Through Somacyl, the regional administration seeks to build a thermal power plant that supplies heating and hot water to more than 28,000 homes and 150 buildings in the capital. However, the outrage also has a political component. As emphasized by Herald of Leonresidents directly accuse the socialist mayor, José Antonio Diez, of serious inconsistency: they remember that, when he was in the opposition, he led protests against a similar biomass plant in Cantamilanos, and now allows an installation that is seven times larger. Furthermore, the neighborhood anger lies in how it has been created. As revealed elDiario.esthe Board has processed this immense 22-hectare complex – located at the foot of the city, next to the municipal cemetery and the Torío and Bernesga rivers – under the controversial figure of ‘Regional Project’. This administrative movement serves, as this medium explains, to “shield” the complex, unify contracts through urgency, accelerate expropriations and avoid local urban planning obstacles. Green energy or environmental risk? Green energy or environmental risk? The project stages a head-on clash of realities. In the official discourse, it is the definitive ecological initiative since the administrations They defend that the infrastructure It is key to decarbonization. They promise that it will allow more than 1,200 fossil fuel boilers to be progressively turned off, will prevent the emission of 35,000 tons of CO₂ annually and will allow neighboring communities to save between 20% and 30% on their bills. The dark side of this “green promise” is provided by environmental defenders. As argued Ecologists in Action in their allegationsinstallation of these dimensions near inhabited areas is environmentally unsustainable. The entity warns that combustion at an industrial level will cause highly dangerous emissions, releasing “benzopyrene, heavy metals and particles” into the air. Furthermore, environmentalists throw down the argument of resource sustainability. The complex will swallow up to 128,000 tons of forest chips annually – a volume that threatens to overexploit the forests – and will consume a whopping 35,000 cubic meters of water from the urban network, without the City Council having issued technical reports that guarantee that this will not affect the population’s supply. Pharaonic figures and legal mud. The size of the project is difficult to assimilate without looking at the pure data. According to the technical data provided by Leon News, The horizon of southern Leon will be modified by the installation of four enormous chimneys 35 meters high (a level equivalent to an eleven-story residential block). At a logistical level, the activity of the furnaces will generate 4,480 tons of ash, slag and dust each year, and will cause an incessant daily movement of up to 20 heavy trucks through the neighborhood. With such an impact on the horizon, the battle is no longer only in the street, but in the courts. As reported Herald of Leonthe project is deeply judicialized. Neighbors and environmentalists are waiting for the Court to resolve a contentious-administrative appeal filed against the municipal licenses granted for the pipeline network. The opacity of the process has fanned the flame of suspicion. The neighborhood spokesperson denounced in the Plaza de San Marcelo that the works began “without the relevant licenses,” calling the operation a “business of two.” The indignation and distrust reach such a point that the neighbors have come to predict that in the future this case will “blow through the air” just as the well-known ‘Wind Plot’ did, demonstrating that everything responds to “the interests of certain people and not to a common good. León’s countdown. While the judges deliberate and the mobilizations do not stop, the clock is ticking. An unappealable countdown has begun: there is a legal limit of five years for the infrastructure to take shape or, on the contrary, the project to decline definitively. The city of León thus appears at a historical crossroads. On one side of the balance, the institutional dream of establishing itself as a pioneering city in Europe in energy transition and thermal independence. On the other, the terror of thousands of families who see an industrial monster installed at the door of their homes. In the coming years the outcome will be decided; Meanwhile, the southern neighborhoods will continue taking to the streets, looking askance at the sky and hoping that justice will act before the wind changes. Image | Wikieditorarigurosa and La Lastra Neighborhood Association Xataka | Europe’s secret weapon to win the electric battery war is not in the mines: it is in the garbage

We have been fearing the Apocalypse for 100 days due to the closure of Hormuz. The blow is going to be given to us by a heat wave in China

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At the end of February, the clocks in the financial markets seemed to stop. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz was not a simple geopolitical skirmish; It meant amputating, from one day to the next, the main energy artery of the planet. Classical economics manuals dictated that the abrupt disappearance of 20% of the world’s crude oil would trigger industrial paralysis, widespread shortages and an imminent recession. However, more than one hundred days after the start of the blockade, Western economies are still standing and the barrel of crude oil, far from reaching the catastrophic 200 dollars that some investment funds even predicted, has been contained below the $100 barrier. We have survived what, on paper, is the greatest threat to energy security in history. The question that now resonates in the European chancelleries is unanimous: how have we achieved it and, above all, how long will the truce last? The architecture of an unexpected rescue The fact that the world has not collapsed is due to a complex network of counterweights that have absorbed the blow. The first revealing data it is provided by the agency Reuters: The production of OPEC countries has fallen this May to its lowest level since 2000 (16.13 million barrels per day) as a direct consequence of the siege of Iran. Despite this massive hole in supply, global supply has been reorganized in record time. The analyst Javier Blas unfolds in his column of Bloomberg the keys to this logistical miracle. The main lifeline, paradoxically, has arrived from Beijing. China has plunged its oil imports by ship to decade lows (nearly 40% less than last year’s average). According to Blas, this unexpected destruction of Asian demand has acted as a huge escape valve: “If Beijing were buying the same amount of oil as in the past, global inflation would be out of control.” Added to Chinese containment is a tectonic shift in energy hegemony. As documented Reutersthe United States has taken advantage of the chaos to become the largest oil exporter in the world, overtaking Russia and Saudi Arabia by shipping nearly 10.5 million barrels per day in May. Furthermore, the Gulf countries have not sat idly by. The producers They are using a network of pipelines less known through Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that circumvent the Hormuz bottleneck, keeping some five million barrels a day alive, in addition to maintaining “hot” extraction infrastructures for an eventual rapid restart. The silent blow The fact that there are no kilometer-long lines at service stations has generated a false sense of immunity. Hormuz’s economic blow is landing, but it is doing so through the financial system. The war conflict has blown up the roadmap by Christine Lagarde and the European Central Bank (ECB), since the sustained rise in fuel prices has caused eurozone inflation to rise to 3.2% in May. Given the fear that this extra cost will permanently spread to the shopping basket, the ECB has been forced to resume raising interest rates this June, placing them at 2.25%. The true price of the Iran war is already being paid by European households and companies through more expensive mortgages and restricted credit. And the scenario continues to be a powder keg: the extreme volatility of the markets after the latest crossed attacks between the United States and Iran, which have kept Brent crude stressed above $95. The Asian thermometer: the great threat to Spain While the global macroeconomy deals with interest rates, at the local level a perfect storm is brewing for the Spanish consumer in the coming months. And the trigger will not be military, but climate. According to the forecasts of the consulting firm Tempos Energía, collected by Europa Pressthe price of electricity in Spain this summer will not depend on what happens in the Strait of Hormuz, but on the temperatures in Asia. Until now, Europe has been importing American liquefied natural gas (LNG) without much competition because China was not demanding it. However, the general director of Tempos Energía, Antonio Aceituno, warns of an imminent reversal: “When the heat arrives and the thermometer soars in Shanghai, American freighters will be divided between demand from Asia and Europe.” If the Asian market absorbs the supply to feed its air conditioning networks, Europe will be left without cheap alternatives to cover its own summer demand peaks, and with tanks at less than half capacity. The consulting firm’s forecast for Spain is severe: if China breaks into the purchasing market, the electricity bill for July and August could rise to the range of 88 to 95 euros per megawatt hour. This represents an increase of up to 40%, which “would be equivalent to paying double what was paid in 2019.” A truce with an expiration date We have managed to avoid the precipice thanks to the inertia of pre-war inventories, a historic deployment of emergency reserves and the forced reconfiguration of the global market. If diplomacy triumphs, Blas explains how the intact infrastructure of the Gulf would allow 50% of production to be recovered in a matter of days. However, trusting economic stability to an imminent diplomatic agreement is a dangerous game. Emergency reserves are not infinite and the capacity to cushion shocks has a limit. The world has shown astonishing resilience in surviving without its main oil route, but the armor is cracking. If the situation continues and summer demand tightens, the apocalypse that we avoided in spring could arrive in the form of unaffordable bills and an induced recession. The Hormuz bill, sooner or later, will have to be paid. Image | Unsplash 1 and 2 Xataka | Ukraine turned drones into hunters. A helicopter shot down in Hormuz has transformed them into a Spielberg film

“Heat makes the bread lose moisture faster”

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Bread is one of the most wasted foods in Spain. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Foodin this country 58.8 million kilos of bread are thrown away per year. Nine kilos per house. That’s more than 5% of the total raw products wasted. And in summer it is worse. Because, cAs José Roldán says, the best baker in the world in 2025When the heat is high, it is advisable to stop using cloth or paper bags. You have to do things differently because, in short, “bread is preserved differently in summer.” What does ‘preserving bread well’ really mean? In reality, under the word ‘preserve’ two different physical processes are mixed that respond differently to high temperatures: On the one hand, we talk about ‘desiccation’ (that is, the loss of moisture). This is accelerated by heat. On the other, there is what we could technically call “hardening by starch retrogradation.” Basically, it is a process by which the crumb recrystallizes and, in principle, it is quite independent of humidity. When we talk about heat worsening the preservation of bread, it is because the two processes overlap and accumulate. The good news is that, finally, we have solutions. In summer, neither cloth nor paper. Let’s not fool ourselves, for most of the year, the cloth bag is a solution that works well. As Roldán explainsthe fabric allows the bread to breathe, something positive in certain circumstances. However, that same characteristic is the problem when temperatures rise. “With the heat it makes it lose moisture faster,” he clarifies. In the end, it’s not just that the bread dries out sooner; is that it loses part of the texture that is so difficult to achieve. So? What options do we have? If we want to keep the bread fresh, the Córdoba baker is clear: a plastic bag. Yes, I know it sounds strange, but it makes sense: plastic is the best option to better preserve the interior moisture of the bread. It is true that it can cause the crust to lose crunch or even make the bread chewy; But they are minor problems that have an easy solution by giving them a heat stroke. In any case, it is not Roldán’s preferred solution. For the best baker of 2025the best way to preserve bread is to freeze it. As he explains, buying good bread, cutting it into slices and putting it directly in the freezer is a perfect way for it to last a long time. Above all, because it can be recovered in a matter of minutes. “Enough a touch of grill or oven and you have freshly made bread. Of course, it is important to pack it airtight. It is the best way to ensure that moisture from the freezer does not come into contact with the slices. Well insulated can last up to six months without much problem. In Trends | Bakers agree that, when the heat arrives, bread must be preserved in a very different way from the rest of the year. In Xataka | We have been eating bread with “hidden salt” for so long that we have forgotten its true flavor. That’s going to change

Against the extreme heat, the Civil Guard agents want to choose between the motorcycle or the car. And don’t let your bosses decide

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It has arrived and has placed itself at the center of the debate. The heat and what to do to remedy it is one of the hot topics every year. Whether or not to apply new measures against a summer that increasingly arrives earlier and leaves later is beginning to be a recurring part of the general conversation. From the classrooms and the children to the Civil Guard agents. The heat. Suffocating and sustained. The same one that gives very few breaks between May and September, if not October. We live in a country that is getting hot and what to do to cope with it in the best possible way is something that we repeat to ourselves starting in the month of May. The misfortunes, in fact, seem to have been the only reason that has made us reflect. One of the last major debates revolves around the how hot it is in schools. He’s not the only one. Weather alerts They have already modified the schedules of the most exposed workers, like sweepers or workers. And there is a group that already defends that it is in the same situation: the Civil Guard agents. What do they claim? The Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) is claiming to the higher commands to allow the agents who monitor traffic to decide whether or not to get on the motorcycle or, on the contrary, prefer to patrol by car. The reason is obvious: the heat. Furthermore, this association demands that they not be forced to wear the vest with an airbag when the temperature exceeds 32ºC, claiming that it is a garment that makes heat evacuation difficult. Why all this? These claims have once again gained strength because the AUGC has met with the Head of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard to send them their requests. And the latter is in charge of deciding the technical criteria to take into account to decide how to work. But the conflict, our colleagues explain Motorpassion Motorcycle comes from behind In July 2025, the PSI-08-25-OPCM report from the Civil Guard Prevention Service indicated that it was advisable not to wear the airbag vest above 32ºC. Later, in December, in the Plenary Session of the Civil Guard Council it was decided that the use of this vest and the decision to take the motorcycle or use the car would fall to the agent “according to his own professional criteria, without the need for authorization or any impediment,” according to the AUGC. And they emphasize that the Operations Command promised to put this in writing. Which have moved again from this association to the Headquarters of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard is that this commitment never materialized and that, on the contrary, a circular from May once again emphasized that the airbag vest was mandatory up to 35ºC and that It is the Operations Command that ultimately decides whether the agent gets on the motorcycle or not, instead of the latter’s criteria prevailing. The risks. The officers’ claims are based on the extreme heat to which they are subjected on the motorcycle when temperatures far exceed 30ºC. It must be taken into account that a motorcyclist faces environmental heat but is also exposed to the heat generated by the motorcycle itself and the use of safety equipment. The risks riding the motorcycle in extreme heat are evident: greater fatigue, proliferation of headaches or possible dizziness. Photo | In Xataka | “With our heads, we would all ride 20 HP motorcycles”: there is a debate brewing about how much power is too much power for a motorcycle

With the heat in Andalusia, my PC is crying out for a new cooling system. These are the ones I like the most

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It’s not June yet, but it’s already hot. Inside my apartment, since the sun is shining all day, it is very noticeable. This, of course, doesn’t help my PC, which starts making a hell of a noise because of the air cooler I have mounted. I wanted to change the box alonebut it will also fall a new cooling for the processor: this one from Corsair that is discounted to 91.99 euros. CORSAIR Nautilus 360 RS Liquid CPU Cooling – 360mm AIO – Low Noise – Direct Connection to Motherboard – Intel LGA 1851/1700, AMD AM5/AM4 – 3X RS120 Fans Included – Black The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Easy-to-install liquid cooling without lights There are several reasons to choose this Corsair cooling. The first of them is that I have several things from this brand at home and they all work great for me. The price is also quite attractive, because although we have had it cheaper on other occasions, right now it has a discount that makes it a very interesting quality-price option. Especially if, like me, You don’t want it to have those additions that increase the price (RGB lighting, I’m looking at you). I search an AIO liquid cooling (that is, not a personalized one, which is very expensive) that is simple and does its job very well. This Corsair Nautilus fits there very well because it has a 360 millimeter radiator with three 120 millimeter fans eachso we can expect very good cooling for the PC CPU. Another key thing for me is that it makes little noise and it does not exceed 20 dBA, although the speed of the fans is adjusted depending on what your PC needs at all times. It’s easy to install and is compatible with both AMD and Intel processors, making it suitable for almost any user. It does not have RGB lighting or a screen in the pump areabut I think that’s great: they are additions that are good, but they make the product more expensive. There are other options within the Corsair catalog and from other manufacturers, but quality-price, I think this Nautilus is one of the best we can buy right now. Other liquid cooling that is on sale CORSAIR iCUE Link Titan 240 RX LCD Liquid CPU Cooling – FlowDrive Cooling Engine – Intel LGA 1851/1700, AMD AM5/AM4 – 2X RX120 RGB Fans – iCUE Link Hub Included – White The price could vary. We earn commission from these links CORSAIR Nautilus 360 RS ARGB Liquid CPU Cooling – 360mm AIO – Direct Connection to Motherboard – Intel LGA 1851/1700, AMD AM5/AM4 – 3X RS120 ARGB Fans Included – White The price could vary. We earn commission from these links CORSAIR iCUE Link Titan 360 RX LCD Liquid CPU Cooling – FlowDrive Cooling Engine – Intel LGA 1851/1700, AMD AM5/AM4 – 3X RX120 RGB Fans – iCUE Link Hub Included – White The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | corsair In Xataka | Buy and assemble your PC in parts: guide to choosing processor, SSD, RAM and graphics card In Xataka | Liquid cooling or air cooler? What to choose so that your CPU doesn’t smoke without having to spend a fortune

The heat is uncovering one of the biggest problems with smart rings

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A quarter of a century ago (seriously), Sonia and Selena sang that “When the heat comes, the boys fall in love.” Today we can add one more phrase to the song: your hands swell and, if you are wearing a ring, forget to take it out. If it is also a smart ring, with its sensors and lithium battery, we have a problem. This is what many users are discovering. This is tight. If it is hot and we also start exercising, it is quite common for a small swelling to occur in the hands. That’s exactly what happened to him to this journalist when he went out for a route through the forest: shortly after starting, he felt how the ring began to tighten more than necessary and he had to take it off. In the case of a watch or bracelet there is no problem because we can loosen it, but the rings are completely rigid devices, often made of metal, and with a thicker design than a conventional ring so they end up being more annoying. The effects of heat. When the temperature begins to rise, blood vessels dilate to release heat, causing more fluid to leak into the tissues. The areas where it usually ends up accumulating are hands and feet due to the effect of gravity. It is what is known as heat edema and it is quite common in the summer months or when we exercise. Not only do the fingers swell. The battery can also expand due to a defect or heat itself, making the ring feel smaller. This Oura Ring user He noticed that as time went by his ring felt tighter and the battery also lasted much less. When he contacted the brand, they confirmed that it was a battery problem and they ended up changing the device. There is more similar cases on Reddit. Miss a plane. The case of youtuber Daniel Rotar It is perhaps the most striking of all. The battery in his Galaxy Ring began to swell causing the ring to get completely stuck on his finger. It hurt and there was no way to get it off, not even with soap and water. As if that were not enough, Daniel was about to take a flight, but was denied boarding because the ring’s battery posed a security risk. He ended up missing his flight and had to go to the emergency room to have the ring removed using ice and lubricant. What companies say. Samsung has a help page with tips on how to remove a Galaxy Ring in case it gets stuck on your finger. They suggest using soap and water, dipping your hand in cold water, or holding your hand up high. If none of this works, they recommend going to the emergency room and having them cut the ring, even indicating the points where to cut so as not to damage the battery and which could end up causing burns. In the case of Oura They also offer the same advice and a guide to know where to cut if necessary. Rethink the design. Smart rings are sold as the solution to monitor our health with an ultra-compact design and more comfortable than a watch, until it gets stuck and you have to cut it off, of course. In this sense, perhaps the future of this product involves sacrificing that rigid and continuous aesthetic, giving way to open designs that can better adapt to these natural changes in the body. It is a path that the company has already started Movano with the Evie ring. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Best smart rings 2026. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models

What until recently were small incursions of spring heat have turned Europe into hell

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London at 35 degrees in the month of May. We are talking about a record that would be exceptional in the middle of summer. France (“a country where much of its territory is low, soft terrain of little relief”) dangerously close to 40 and discovering how all those cities in the valleys They become “pans like Seville or Córdoba”. Central Europe, the Alps, the former Yugoslavia seeing how the thermometers have gone completely crazy. “Literally hundreds of May records have already been beaten“and the worst thing is that no symptoms are seen weakening on the horizon. The relevant question today may be why. What is happening? “It will never cease to surprise me to see a number (…) so extreme for the time and covering such a large record area,” said González Alemán a few hours ago. And no wonder: each of the little pink dots in the image below are historical heat records for May. This week, Europe has become hell and, despite years of warnings, no one really expected it. How is it possible? The explanation is simple. A powerful subtropical anticyclone has spread over Western Europe and is generating what It is often referred to as a “heat dome”. That is, a situation in which the air on the surface is not renewed, does not move and, as a consequence, warms up little by little. The following two maps show perfectly what this “heat dome” is and where it is affecting most intensely. What do they mean? The first image shows the size and extent of the anticyclone. Right now, much of Europe is cloudless. The second shows the intensity of the phenomenon. As Jeff Berardelli explainsany red dot represents a new record for May (and we are taking the record since 1950 as a reference). This has many names… “atmospheric blocks”, quasi-resonant amplification of planetary waves either persistence of “double jet” configurations about Eurasia. But the result is the same: the problem has stopped being the heat and is starting to be that today’s climatic extremes continue for days and days. “This is perhaps the most obvious sign of the new climate that has nothing to do with that of a few decades ago”. And what can we do? That’s a great question, because these heat waves (if, as they seem, they persist) will have a very clear consequence: Europe will have to change its real estate stock from “houses designed to keep the heat out” to “houses designed to keep it out.” We are facing one of the Image | Tropical TidBits In Xataka | The Gulf Stream is dying. Someone’s idea to solve it dates back to the 1950s: closing the Bering Strait

It is 1,000 times faster than current semiconductors and does not heat up

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A research team at the University of Tokyo (Japan) has reached an impressive milestone in the field of semiconductors. And, as he has collected Nikkeihas developed a device capable of processing information 1,000 times faster than the current most advanced CPU. It seems like science fiction, it’s true, but it’s not. It’s just science. Of course, this is frontier science. And the non-volatile quantum switching device that these scientists have developed uses quantum physics to carry out its purpose. Most strikingly, this device represents bits using the magnetic properties of electrons rather than the flow of electricity itself, which is what the integrated circuits we are familiar with do. In fact, its capabilities lie precisely in this strategy. Current semiconductor technology It takes about a nanosecond to register a single bit before overheating becomes a critical issue. However, this innovative device processes one bit of information in just 40 picoseconds. In practice this means that you invest one thousandth of the time in this process that conventional methods require. Interestingly, it combines tantalum and manganin to convert electrical signals into magnetic information, so its composition is very different from that of the silicon chips that reside inside our electronic devices. Heat is no longer a problem Laboratory tests carried out by researchers at the University of Tokyo have yielded surprising results. In their ingenious device, an electrical signal passes through the tantalum layer, so that the device registers that signal in the manganin in the form of the direction of a tiny magnetic force. Precisely this address represents a single bit without depending on the continuous flow of electric current. Its performance improves as components become physically smaller During the first tests, this device has worked completely stable even after processing information more than 100,000 million times. However, these Japanese researchers have verified that their performance improves as components become physically smaller. For this reason, if this technology finally makes it out of the laboratory, it could reduce energy consumption when processing information to just one hundredth of current levels. Here’s another impressive fact: this device has processed information 100,000 million times without making a mistake. However, a current CPU or GPU would have overheated after just 10 million clock cycles if it had run at a similar speed. There is no doubt that it is a notable achievement. Be that as it may, we cannot ignore that moving this technology from the laboratory to a chip factory is a real challenge in the field of engineering. The physics works, as these Japanese scientists have shown, but large-scale manufacturing poses challenges that are not present in a single device produced in a university laboratory. Even so, Disruptive technologies are usually born this wayso although the future of this innovation is uncertain, there is a possibility that it will manage to leave the laboratory and reach the chip manufacturing plants. The prototype is planned for 2030. Fingers crossed. Image | Satoru Nakatsuji (University of Tokyo) More information | Nikkei In Xataka | China has reached one of the holy grails of quantum physics. So says Peter Zoller, father of quantum computers

Oviedo has already broken its heat record for May and AEMET warns that this has only just begun

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Let’s stay with a figure: 34.3. It is, almost certainly, the most important data of the week. On Thursday, May 21, 2026, the thermometers of the city of Oviedo They recorded a temperature of 34.3 degrees. 1.8 ºC more than the highest temperature ever recorded in May in the capital of the Principality. AEMET is convinced that between today and the weekend will be reached again (or even exceeded) this temperature. And yet, this is only a tiny part of the story. Because the real story is that, in a region structurally protected by its oceanic climate, records are being broken in ways we would not have been able to imagine. And that’s without the country being in a ‘heat wave’. What is happening? Although There is some controversy with the namewhat is happening is called ‘heat dome‘. That is, a subtropical anticyclonic ridge, anomalously powerful for this time of year, which is trapping very warm air above our heads. Europe is bearing the brunt, it is true. Countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands and the British Isles they are seeing temperatures between 10 and 15 degrees above normal. If everything goes as predicted by the models, the May records of half of Europe are going to explode on the 25th of this month. And, of course, we are noticing that. As the haze falls on the Canary Islands (right at the eastern vertex of the dome), a good part of the country will suffer considerable heat. We talk about more than 34 degrees in Asturias and the Basque Country and 38 in the Guadiana valleys. The Guadalquivir valley is already above 35. And, as I say, all this without heat waves. Despite the magnitude of the episode, AEMET does not rate it like a heat wave in peninsular Spain. It is not. We already know that the operational definition requires exceeding the 95th percentile of daily maximum temperatures for the July-August quarter for at least three days and, of course, we are not going to go to that extreme. What does all this heat tell us? Let’s be honest. For Andújar or Badajoz to reach 38 degrees on May 21 is rare, but not exceptional. But for Oviedo to reach 34.3 is a very different thing. It shows, above all, that the Cantabrian coast is beginning to stop being a “climate refuge.” Why is all this important? In addition to an underlying climate issue, this warm episode is important because it is dangerous. The first extreme heat of the year is the deadliest because the population has not gone through the period of physiological acclimatization produced by progressive exposure to summer heat. That is, because it is May and the Iberian summer has truly begun. Image | Tropical TidBits In Xataka | The Gulf Stream is dying. Someone’s idea to solve it dates back to the 1950s: closing the Bering Strait

Spain is going from pre-spring weather in one week to “African heat” in the next

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It’s been cold. The first half of May has been marked by negative thermal anomalies of up to 10 degrees below normal, but that is over. According to the modelsthe entry of an anticyclonic ridge of Saharan air is going to revolutionize the Spanish meteorological situation in a matter of days: on Friday the 22nd the forecasts indicate July highs. We are talking about 36-37 °C in the Guadalquivir and Guadiana valleys, more than 30 in the entire southern half of the peninsula and, keep an eye on the data, the first tropical nights of the year. I mean, things are getting serious. What is the news? The protagonist of this week’s story is once again the polar jet. However, instead of a cold air mass, the undulations of the jet will place a warm African ridge above our heads. The process It will begin on Tuesday the 19th and will last until at least the 22nd.. After Friday, the models mark the appearance of a DANA in the Cantabrian Sea; However, it is too early to say precisely. What is going to happen? Let’s go in parts: Between Monday the 18th and Tuesday the 19th It is going to recover progressively. 30 degrees will appear on Tuesday in the Ebro valley, the interior of Murcia and the southern half of the Valencian Community. He Wednesday 20 The 30 will arrive in Madrid, Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, the interior of Andalusia, the Region of Murcia, the Ebro valley and the interior of Catalonia. Sevilla will score 33-34 without problems. He Thursday 21 in the Guadiana and Guadalquivir valleys 34-36 °C will be reached. 36 are expected in Seville, 35 in Badajoz, 34 in Toledo and 32 in Madrid. He Friday the 22nd All of Spain will be above 30. Only the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Galicia and Asturias are spared. That day we will experience the first tropical nights of the year on the southern plateau and the Guadalquivir valley. That is, the thermometers will not drop below 20 degrees. Is it something strange? Yes and no. What’s interesting about this episode It’s not the heat itself.. We have already seen Mays like this recently. What is interesting is the magnitude of the swing: we are going from anomalies of -10 °C to anomalies of +10 °C in a single week. And this is something that neither the human body nor crops assimilate easily. Image | BenBaso In Xataka | The Gulf Stream is dying. Someone’s idea to solve it dates back to the 1950s: closing the Bering Strait

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