close its beaches due to the thermal blowout

heat waves are changing the behavior of tourists in Spainbut we cannot forget the people who live 365 days a year in tourist cities. Those who travel there can avoid doing so during the hottest times, but when it comes to your place of residence it is not so easy. Beach baths can be quick solutions to beat the heat. However, when this is too extreme, anything out of the water can be very dangerous. For this reason, the Alicante city council will close the beaches today starting at 5 p.m. due to the red alert declared in this third heat wave of the summer. No beaches, no parks. This decision affects both to the beaches, as well as to the parks and gardens. And, in reality, it is not only due to the heat wave. In fact, if that were the only reason, perhaps the beach closure would have been set in the middle of the day, when temperatures are higher. It was done at 5 p.m., because from that time on it is expected that there will be thermal bursts, which would cause very strong gusts of wind, as well as sudden increases in temperature. Revenge what? A thermal blowout is a phenomenon that silk due to the formation of precipitation that never reaches the ground, since on the descent it encounters a layer of very warm and dry air, which evaporates it. The evaporation process requires energy, which is extracted from the surrounding air, cooling it suddenly. The cold air tends to fall downwards, so a downdraft is formed, which will increasingly have a larger column of air above it. The weight of this compresses said current, so that it heats up suddenly, giving rise to increases of about 5ºC in a very few minutes. Sometimes they can even rise 15ºC. On the other hand, when this current of hot air falls suddenly above the earth’s surface, it can no longer continue to descend, so it expands violently in all directions, like the stream of water from a tap that we suddenly turn on. The result is very intense winds, practically hurricane-force. It should be noted that layers of very hot and dry air that give rise to blowouts are more frequent during a heat wavewhich is why these phenomena are becoming more and more frequent. Also terraces and nightstands. In Spain, the decision has already been made to prohibit the opening of terraces in bars during the hottest hours of the day during heat waves. For this reason, in Alicante, terraces and nightstands cannot be opened between 5 and 9 p.m. The Santa Bárbara castle will also be closed and attention will be paid to umbrellas, flower pots and any other object that could cause urban accidents due to the wind. Be careful with the trees. Finally, the City Council has warned residents to avoid walking through wooded areas, to avoid possible accidents if a tree falls due to the wind. Images | Zarateman In Xataka | Sea temperature continues to rise and experts are clear: “It is partly favored by the start of a new El Niño phenomenon”

If the question is how to avoid heat stroke in summer, in Japan they have an increasingly popular answer: thermal bracelets

It happened ago just over a year. Montserrat Aguilar had completed her day as a cleaning service worker in Barcelona when, already at home, collapsed and died. He had spent hours sweeping the streets of Raval in the sun on a day when temperatures in Barcelona exceeded 35ºC. Although at the beginning of 2026 the family I was still waiting based on the results of the final autopsy, his death unleashed a intense (and bitter) debate about the conditions faced by workers who, like her, walk the streets during heat waves. This year in Barcelona they wanted to cure their health with technology well known in Japan: bracelets capable of anticipating heat strokes. What has happened? that in full extreme heat wavewith the thermometer exceeding 40ºC In Barcelona, ​​the Barcelona City Council has decided to reinforce the security of the operators who provide public services on the street using technology. A few weeks ago he distributed 1,400 bracelets thermal among the staff responsible for keeping the city clean, providing public lighting and taking care of the garden areas. Is it the only measure? No. The Newspaper precise other measures with which Barcelona wants to prevent extreme temperatures from taking their toll on those who work on the street. For example, adapting the workday of gardeners in summer, advancing the start and end times to avoid the most dangerous periods, or adopting special protocols, designed for the dog days. Is it enough? No. Sensors and protocols are welcome, but unions insist they are not enough. “Non-exposure is the best prevention,” claims Carlos del Barrio, from CCOO, in The Newspaper. Workers’ representatives recall that “no measure is sufficient on its own” and demand greater investment to, among other things, add air conditioning to cars. Without going any further, the Commissions remember that a relevant part of the fleet is still not acclimatized and there are even vehicles (such as irrigation vehicles) that have the engine located right under the seat, something not very desirable in August. How do the bracelets work? They basically fit the operator’s wrist and control their temperature. When they detect that it rises too high and approaches dangerous levels, it emits a signal (vibrates and lights up) so you can take action. In Barcelona has it happened before. When this happens and the thermal bracelet issues its warning, the operator must stop, find a shady place, drink water and inform his supervisor. The bracelet itself will inform you with a light signal (green, in this case) when you are ready to continue. In the specific case of Barcelona, ​​Parks and Gardens has invested almost 60,000 euros in sensors from the company Metalco, devices designed to warn the user “two levels before” of heat stroke. “It is set to activate the alarm when the deep temperature reaches approximately 38ºC.” That is the general guideline. In practice, the sensor must take into account the conditions of each user. The Department of the Interior has also opted for a similar solution, with devices for the Mossos and firefighters. Is it something new? Thermal bracelets have been used for a long time. And they are certainly not exclusive to Catalonia or Spain. As I remembered a few days ago The Confidential There is a Japanese company that has been dedicated to them for a few years now: Biodata Bankcreated in 2018 and with headquarters in Tokyo. Its catalog includes Canaria+, a bracelet designed to detect “subtle changes in thermal stress” and that helps the wearer control their rest, hydration and food. When the sensor detects that the body is having difficulty dissipating heat, it issues a warning with light, sound and vibration. The moment it thinks the risk has disappeared, it reports again with a green light. “We felt it was necessary to have a system in place and take action before a person collapsed,” explains the company’s CEO, Takeshi Anzai. Regarding his bracelet, he clarifies that “the algorithm adapts” to whoever uses it, although it starts from four levels. The first is free of danger, with the temperature below 37ºC. The second rises to a maximum of 38.3ºC and reveals a “latent risk.” With the third (37.7-39ºC, depending on the person) the alerts go off. The last, the most critical, ranges from 38.7 to 40ºC. Is it only used in Spain? At all. In fact Japan is another good example. Last year the World Economic Forum actually dedicated an extensive report to the “lessons” that the country offers to overcome extreme heat waves and among its resources included wrist sensors designed to detect sudden increases in body temperature and, thus, prevent heat stroke. One of the organizations that has opted for them there is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which has distributed thermal bracelets among elderly people with reduced mobility, teachers and students who go to public schools and certain workers who have to work outdoors. “In Japan last year the number of people urgently transported due to heat stroke exceeded 100,000. In cities like Tokyo, the demand for ambulances became so high that authorities issued alerts asking the population to make appropriate use of emergencies,” remember Anzai. Images | Barcelona City Council 1 and 2 and Biodata Bank In Xataka | The French are so desperate about the heat wave that they have started painting the outside of their houses with chalk

We are at 44 degrees and AEMET says that the worst is yet to come. The good news is that we already know when thermal relief arrives.

We’re sweating, let’s face it. And it’s Monday and you don’t even want to look at the car thermometer. Above all, because AEMET has already been warning that the worst is coming on Tuesday: even 44 degrees in the interior valleys, hellish nights in the southeast and anomalies of more than 20 degrees in the north. And yet, at the bottom of weather prediction models (where hours almost become weeks) cold scenarios begin to appear. “Anomalies of -12 degrees to start July“, you hear them say. And yes, the map is correct, the data says that. The problem is everything else. Although first of all, good news: thermal relief is close. “It will arrive in the middle of the week”a breath of fresher air” from the northwest. This will help cool the heat that “has settled in much of the Iberian Peninsula during the end of spring and the beginning of summer.” It doesn’t mean, of course, that it won’t be hot. Even if (as some maps point out) temperatures stay a couple of degrees below normal, it will still be hot. However, the decline will be clear. For reference, Bilbao will go from 42 to 29 in 48 hours. And now let’s continue with July. Indeed, some outputs of AIFS v2the European Center’s artificial intelligence model, are showing very curious anomalies for the first days of July. There are, in fact, three traps: the first is the deadline. Ten days, whether we like it or not, is still a long time to close a forecast. The second is that we are talking about anomalies: -12 degrees of anomaly is a lot, yes. But above July levels it is not ‘as much’ as ​​it might seem. At most we will have spring weather left. Something that will be well received, but that can become a problem if we do not manage expectations correctly. The last trap is to understand that ‘a week’ is not ‘a weather’. It is true that we have already had two very rare high temperature events (which, it seems, are caused by variations in the jet stream). It is also true that the idea of ​​a cold first of July conveys a certain idea of ​​a thermal ‘roller coaster’. But neither an early heat wave nor a thermal bump changes the reality: that summer is getting harsher. That is to say, we run the risk of the idea that “the weather is crazy” take hold when it is a lie. We do not live in a world where cold and heat are distributed as if the days were distributed in a lottery: we live in a world that is warming. Which heats up much hotter and faster than we would like. What can we expect? In the short term, a little more heat and a little thermal relief. There will be some showers in the west, first; and in the east, later. Then, if everything ends up being confirmed, a few days that are a little cooler (and wetter than normal). In the medium term, everything indicates that more of the same: hot, very hot. Image | BenBaso In Xataka | This map reveals the exact ‘climate clone’ of your city (and the result is surprising)

We have been growing rice for 9,000 years under the same thermal rule. We’re about to break it forever

The rice It is not just another cerealbut it is the fundamental pillar that supports the diet of more than half of the world’s population. For millennia, humanity has relied on its ability to thrive in different latitudes and feed entire civilizations, but now we are about to bring this ancient crop to to unknown territory due to the increase in temperatures we are experiencing. They are documenting it. Rice has a limit to the conditions it can withstand in order to thrive, and science has sounded the alarm by pointing out that the thermal tolerance of rice has remained practically constant for the last 9,000 years, but now, in a matter of decades, we are about to break this barrier. A thermal limit. The research work has focused mainly on cross-referencing archaeological data from millennia ago with contemporary records of cultivation and future climate projections. In this way, after tracing the evolution of rice cultivation over the millennia, researchers discovered that its historical limits have barely changed. This means that ancient civilizations planted rice under temperature conditions surprisingly similar to the maximum temperatures supported by the current varieties we use. This is why the bug, evolutionarily speaking, has not adapted to extreme heat that it had never experienced before. The increase in temperature. The study estimates that, towards the end of the century, the geographical area that will exceed thermal thresholds could multiply between 10 and 30 times in the main rice-growing countries of Asia. This means that the regions that are now the world’s rice granaries could become biologically hostile to the plant, not allowing it to grow. The first cracks. It is not necessary to go to the year 2100 to see the effects of this crisis, but thermal stress is already affecting rice fields. This is evidenced by a recent study that analyzed the practical cultivation of rice in China and showed that global warming is already altering the rules of the game. According to this workthe increase in temperatures is causing alterations in the life cycles and flowering of the plant, in addition to a worse use of the thermal resource in several of the most important rice-growing areas of the Asian giant. In other words: extreme heat is desynchronizing the rice’s biological clock, making the plant less efficient at growing and producing grain. Its consequences They do not focus only on withered plants, but also translate into a drastic drop in production globally. Already in 2017, published research warned of plausible rice yield losses under future climate warming, and now we are seeing that the hotter the heat, the less grain per ear. The social problem. Something to keep in mind is that, although the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide can increase plant growth, the reality is that its effects are distributed tremendously unevenly. Here science warns that these climate alterations are increasing the achievement gap between low-income and middle- and high-income countries. This also means that, while the richest nations will be able to invest in new infrastructure, cooling systems for crops or genetically modified varieties to be more resistant, the nations most dependent on rice will suffer the onslaught of production losses without being able to do almost anything. Race against the clock. A priori, we cannot trust that the natural evolution of rice will save us, because if we look back, we will see that if the thermal limit of the crop has not changed in 9,000 years, it will not do so magically in the next five decades. This means that alternatives must now be considered to save the most basic food or even prepare for a restructuring of agricultural areas in Asia. In Xataka | Spanish rice is discovering that there is something worse than droughts and pests: rice from Myanmar and Cambodia

In 2014 it was inaugurated as the largest solar thermal power plant in the world. 12 years later they want to close it after incinerating birds

The huge Ivanpah solar thermal power plant, opened in 2014 in the Mojave Desert, was almost closed after just 11 years of operation. An end accelerated by its history of technical, economic and environmental problems that, however, was paralyzed in January of this year after the agreement of all those involved. Context. Concentrated solar thermal energy, once considered one of the most cutting-edge technologies for clean electricity generation, is not going through its best moment. Especially in Nevada, where the Crescent Dunes fiasco was already very public. The concentrating solar thermal system uses thousands of mirrors, or “heliostats”, that follow the path of the sun to concentrate its light on central towers. In these towers, the extreme heat is used to heat water and produce steam, which drives turbines connected to electrical generators. The Ivanpah case. The Ivanpah plant was built with an investment of $1.6 billion in loans from the U.S. Department of Energy and long-term contracts from major electric companies. It was the largest solar thermal power plant in the world until the inauguration of Port Augusta in Australia. 11 years after its inauguration, the enormous solar thermal plant began to close after failing to meet its initial expectations. The lack of profitability condemned it, at least a priori. A succession of rulings and complaints from environmental groups about its impact on wildlife accelerated its end, approved by the US Department of Energy. Continuity. However, the decision was reversed in January 2026 by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Ivanpah will remain open. Their argument is that uncertainty in federal renewable energy policies forces us to prioritize the reliability of the current electricity supply. In addition, the commission seeks to prevent the enormous investment in infrastructure already made from being lost, despite the high operating costs and the serious environmental impact on local fauna. The measure ignores the previous agreement between the companies to close the plant and save money for users. A priori, it will remain open until its contract expires in 2039. A complex technology. One of the main problems has been the difficulty of keeping the mirrors precisely aligned. The technology, which requires exact tracking of the sun, has proven to be unstable and unreliable in practice, says a CNN report. The maintenance of the complex mechanisms and the management of the turbines in turn generate high operating costs, which has caused concentrated solar thermal to lose competitiveness compared to other renewable technologies, especially photovoltaic solar, whose prices have plummeted. A bird cremation machine. The criticism is not limited to the technical aspects. The Ivanpah plant has been questioned for years for its environmental impact, especially on desert wildlife. Environmental groups denounce the irreparable damage to the habitat of species such as the desert tortoise. But also the death of birds that are incinerated by the intense rays concentrated by the mirrors. A second Crescent Dunes. The case of Crescent Dunes, also occurring in Nevada, reinforces this image of failure of solar thermal energy. This project, which was intended to be one of the milestones in innovation and energy storage using molten salts, ended up becoming a multimillion-dollar waste. Developed by the Spanish group ACSpromised continuous production of electricity, even during hours without light, thanks to thermal storage in salts. In practice, Crescent Dunes never managed to deliver the promised amount of energy and ended up going bankrupt due to engineering and management problems. In the shadow of photovoltaics. In short, the rapid fall in prices of photovoltaic technology and its lower impact on wildlife have made concentrated solar thermal obsolete. While solar panels have been gaining efficiency and reducing their installation and maintenance costs, solar thermal plants have lagged behind in terms of competitiveness, which has led investors and electricity companies to reconsider their bets on this type of projects. In Xataka | The first central tower solar plant to be commercially exploited is in Seville: a pioneer that has survived other more ambitious ones In Xataka | Chile has one of the most valuable skies on Earth. Renewables are putting it on the ropes In Xataka | China’s largest solar park is doing much more than generating energy: it’s greening a desert Image | Pexels

why the head is not the thermal “chimney” that we have always been told

When winter approaches, many people cannot go outside without some basic items, such as a jacket, gloves and also a hat. The latter, in addition to being a complement that suits some very well, has also represented a mantra that has been repeated on different occasions: heat ‘escapes’ largely through the head. There are nuances. This is something that is accompanied by stratospheric figures, such as between 40 and 50% of our body heat ‘escapes’ through the skull. But the truth is that science adds nuances to these data so that we can be much calmer, although in the case of newborns we can have an interesting debate. The origin. To understand why half the world believes that the head works like a human chimney, you have to travel to the 1970s. And more specifically to the United States Army Survival Manual. At that time, experiments were carried out with subjects exposed to extreme cold temperatures. The methodological problem, or rather the subsequent interpretation, was that the participants were wearing arctic survival suits that covered the entire body… except the head. Logically, when measuring the heat loss, the researchers found that most of it escaped through the only area that was bare. And from here arose the need to wear a hat because almost all the heat was released from this part. What is known now. Subsequent studies have been responsible for dismantling this belief. that 40-50% of the heat is released through the skull. The conclusion of science indicates that physical reality is much simpler, since heat loss is proportional to the surface of exposed skin. In this way, if the head of an adult represents approximately 7% of the body surface, it will contribute only to diffuse 7-10% of body heat that is being lost. They have proven it again. In addition to the most classic studies that have been done, science has also wanted to analyze this phenomenon in cold water swimmers. using neoprene suitscomparing when their head is submerged and when it is above the water. Here it was seen that the skull does not dissipate heat disproportionately, but is simply exposed skin with nothing special that indicates that it should be protected more than another part of the body. The cold of the head. Although the percentage of heat lost here is low, there are physiological reasons to protect it. Specifically, the head, and especially the face and scalp, are areas with very little fat or muscle insulation compared to other parts of the body. In addition, they have a large number of blood vessels and thermal receptors on the surface, which makes them much more sensitive to the sensation of cold. This means that, although 50% of the heat is not lost through the skull, cooling the head gives us greater thermal discomfortso by covering it we feel much warmer. In addition, it also acts on cardiovascular reflexes and lowering core temperature. Therefore, wearing a hat in winter is useful, but it works the same as wearing gloves or a good scarf: it is another layer of insulation, not a magic cap. An exception. There is always an exception to every rule, and in this case they are in babies. in a newbornthe head is enormous in proportion to the rest of the body, occupying a much greater percentage of body surface than in an adult. This means that they do lose more heat here than in any other part of the body, and that is why we always see a baby with a hat on almost from the time they are in their first days of life. Science has pointed out Because in full-term newborns, an insulating hat can reduce total heat loss by 75% and oxygen consumption by 85% compared to being naked. In low resource settings or in low weight babies, the use of wool hats is clearly associated with a lower incidence of hypothermia. But with control. In healthy, full-term babies who are in warm rooms, or practicing the skin-to-skin method, the evidence suggests that the hat does not always provide a clear extra benefit and even, if combined with excessive warmth, it can promote overheating. With or without a hat. In conclusionit must be taken into account that the head is not a special part where a large amount of heat is released. However, in everyday life it is usually the only part of the body that we wear naked in winter and it has little natural insulation, so covering it is an efficient strategy to improve thermal comfort. Images | Jonathan J. Castellon In Xataka | The cold is so savage that Ukraine has activated the most kamikaze option: the “50,000 Russians per month” or giving Moscow what it wants

thermal lurches have weeks left

Suddenly and without warning, the cold has crept into Spain. More than half the country is waking up with temperatures close to zero And, although it is true that the afternoons are still mild, millions of people are faced with the big question of the moment: is it time to change clothes? Or what is the same, translated into meteorological terms, is the cold here to stay? What has happened? In reality, it is not so much what has happened, but what is happening and what is going to happen. Because in the coming days, we are going to see very rapid temperature jumps (“from ice to sun in 48 hours“, with increases and subsequent decreases). We have already seen it: Ciudad Real went from a minimum of 13 to a minimum of 5 from one day to the next. Teruel, Salamanca or Palencia dropped below zero degrees. And, although in the abstract it is not strange that as we approach November the days are increasingly colder, the heat is holding so much so that the “saw teeth” are much more pronounced. Temperature changes are so marked that they are no longer just meteorological curiosities: they are causing problems in people’s daily lives. Is it going to continue like this? This is interesting. According to AEMETNovember is going to be relatively warm at least during the first fortnight. Warm anomalies and above-average precipitation. However, the ECMWF suggests That’s where the “heat” ends. To that first fortnight with thermal values ​​still above average and strong Atlantic circulation (i.e., more generous rainfall on the western slope); It seems that a second half of November will follow in which a possible pattern change will bring more normalized temperatures. Because? On a technical level, what we are seeing is the product of an alternation of warm ridges and cold fronts. We are talking about mild days, open skies and thermal rises, followed by abrupt drops as cooler maritime air enters. What does all this translate into? In a very pronounced thermal variability. That is to say, a heightened risk of isolated frosts in the interior despite the fact that the days are mild and pleasant. This will have strong impacts in agriculture (especially stone fruits and autumn products), in energy demand (at such an uncertain time) and health (the early arrival of respiratory infections). All this punctuated by a series of Atlantic storms that will repeatedly impact the west; while the Mediterranean will be relatively calm with probable scares against DANAs or undulations of the jet stream. So, is the cold here to stay? In the short term, no. The models point to a soft first half of November compared to the average, with occasional declines. The stable cold seems to be delayed until the second half of November. Image | Tomer Burg In Xataka | A group of researchers is trapped in an Antarctic base under a threat: that of one of them.

It is so hot in Granada that there has been one of the most extreme phenomena of the weather: thermal burst

This Sunday on the Tropical Costa de Granada An unusual phenomenon has been recordedbut it has caused great ravages. While people were trying to pass in the water the heat wave in which we are now, in a few minutes everything changed to have a hurricane and scorching wind on top. It reached such a speed that made the umbrellas and chairs shot as projectiles. And it was not a simple summer storm, but a phenomenon known as thermal burst. What happened on the Granada coast. The sequence of the facts was dizzying. Shortly before 19:45, 112 emergency services The first calls began to receive Notice. The alerters, from different points of the Tropical Costa, talked about hurricane winds that even threw palm trees of the promenade. The climax of the phenomenon, According to the Aemet, It was recorded at 19:50 with a temperature that shot sharply until 40.1 ° C. Jointly, wind gusts reached a speed of 86.8 km/h officially, although in different social networks users suggest that these speeds They reached 100 km/h. A phenomenon that concentrated in different municipalities such as Motril, Salobreña, Torrenueva, Carchuna and Almuñécar. Click on the image to access the publication. Chaos on the beach and bailouts in the sea. Shared testimonies on social networks paint a collective horror picture. A citizen He reported: “I was there on the beach and the situation has been horrible, I have not had worse in my life.” The disseminated images In social networks they showed people running to their cars, which caused traffic jams on the exit roads of the coast. Although the greatest danger materialized in the water. The rapid evolution of this meteorological phenomenon caused people to practice aquatic sports, and the wind caught several people who saw how they crawled inside and preventing returning to the shore by their own means. This triggered an operation where Seven people had to be rescued in front of the beaches of Torrenueva Costa and Carchuna. A rescue that was carried out by maritime rescue, but also by private vessels that prevented this situation from becoming a great tragedy. A rapid official response. Given the violence of such an unpredictable phenomenon, the beaches of the affected municipalities They had to be evacuated. At 20:20, the mayor of Motril, Luisa García Chamorro, launched an urgent notice Through its social networks which reflected the seriousness of the situation, asking not to go outside and have a lot of caution. A term comfort does not arise from nothing. They require an atmospheric configuration Very specifica “recipe” that this Sunday was perfect in Granada. The main ingredient was The extreme heat accumulated during the prolonged heat wave. This heat not only affected the surface, but created a deep layer of very hot air, and crucially very dry at the average levels of the atmosphere, several kilometers high from where the burst was given. Meanwhile, on the sea, the air in contact with the water was comparatively cooler and more humble. This stratification with a very hot and dry air in height on a cooler and more wet layer near the surface is the ideal culture broth. The scenario was completed with the formation of convective storms on the mountains of the interior of Granada, which acted as the trigger for the process. Of the rain that never falls to the scorching wind. The process of formation of a thermal burst is a fascinating paradox of thermodynamics, where a process that begins with an external cooling culminates in a burst of scorching heat. It can be broken down into four key steps According to the Aemet technical guides: The descendant current: everything begins within a storm cloud where a powerful current of descending air is generated that drags rainfall. Sudden evaporation: As this column of air and rain plummets, it meets the extremely dry and hot air layer that had been formed before. The dry air ‘absorbs’ voraciously all precipitation, causing it to evaporate completely before reaching the ground, something that is known as ‘virga’. Evaporation is a process that consumes energy, abruptly cooling the air of the descending column. This air, now much colder and dense than the one that surrounds it, collapses towards the ground at a dizzying speed. Compression warming: Once all the water has evaporated, the cooling process ceases. The air column, and if “refrigerant”, continues its free fall. When descending, atmospheric pressure quickly increases by compressing the mass of air. This compression is client at an extraordinary pace, known as dry adiabatic gradient. The impact or burst. Finally, this extremely hot, dense and dry air bubble violates the ground, like an invisible hammer. Unable to continue descending, it expands horizontally in all directions at high speed, generating destructive and sudden wind gusts and intense temperature rise that characterizes the phenomenon. It is not the same as a tornado. Sometimes this phenomenon can be confused with a tornado, but There are differences. While in the tornado the wind revolves around a vertical axis, in the bursting the winds are descending and linear. Climate change will make them more frequent. Thermal bursts are a natural phenomenon, but climate change is causing them to be more frequent. The report of the IPCC scientific experts It is unequivocal: heat waves are now more frequent, more durable and more intense due to global warming. The Granada event was no exception. It was the culmination of a historical heat wave in Andalusia. As explained before, the temperature is the fundamental ingredient that creates and dry the necessary atmospheric layer for the thermal burst to activate. An ordinary storm, in a less extreme environment, could have generated a cold front that refreshes the environment. However, when interacting with an “prepared” atmosphere by anomalous heat, the result was the violent explosion of scorching air. More energy and more extreme. The connection goes beyond heat waves. One of the most direct consequences of the increase in global temperatures is that the atmosphere can retain more … Read more

It comes from the Andalusian mountain and burns in French thermal

While Europe profile new sanctions Against Russia in the energy sector, the clock runs to fill the reserves for winter. In this context, France has decided to look south to supply its thermal plants and reduce its gas dependence: Andalusian biomass is placed in the center of the solution. Short. From the port of Seville a new export operation of forest biomass has come out to an electricity generation plant in the French region of Provence and Costa Azul. As reported by the Junta de Andalucía through a press release4,200 tons of biomass have been loaded, from jungle treatments made in Andalusian mountains and managed by the Novalis company. This operation is part of a public-private collaboration model that seeks to value the forest resources of Andalusia and position biomass as an exportable energy alternative. A paradigm shift. This type of exports shows a deep transformation in territory management: what was previously a residue or a fire risk, today becomes a clean energy resource with international demand. Andalusian woody biomass not only generates renewable energy, but does it with a neutral fingerprint in carbon, contributing to the decarbonization objectives of the European Union. In addition, active jungle improves the structure of forests and reduces plant load, which helps prevent forest fires. “For years conservation was confused with inaction and that has led to the abandonment of many mountains,” has pointed out in Europa Press The general director of Forestry Policy and Biodiversity, Juan Ramón Pérez Valenzuela. The process. The model is based on the tender for forest exploits on public land, especially in areas of high ecological value and risk of depopulation. Cleaning tasks, clareos and jungle treatments are carried out by specialized companies. Once classified and shipyard, biomass is exported through logistics infrastructure to energy facilities in France, Italy, Denmark and Sweden. Since the operation started in 2019, the port of Seville You have seen come out More than 400,000 tons of biomass: wood, cork and even olive bone that now serve to generate clean energy in Europe. Only the Sevillana Novalis company has moved more than 100,000 tons. If the exports also carried out from Huelva, Puerto Real or Almería are added, the total already exceeds 640,000 tons to countries of the north and east of the continent. Now there is no bottleneck. Spain has been seen as a Cul-de-Sac energetic: With limited infrastructures and with hardly any interconnections with central Europe. But when he is interestedas this operation demonstrates from Seville, it can be removed to the sea and what was only gas in gas pipelines, now they are mountains converted into heat. It is not the only case, since companies like Burpellet, in the small bourgeois town of Doña Santos, They consolidate this idea. With a production of up to 150,000 tons per year, its plant demonstrates that biomass can be a viable industrial solution for rural areas, without losing its local scale. The mountain as the energy of the future. The Junta de Andalucía does not hide your bet. The operation in the port of Seville is a sample of the deployment of the Andalusian Forest Plan Horizon 2030, which mobilizes 300 million euros per year to promote the multifunctional management of the mountain. And it will also be the basis for a future mountain law that consolidates the productive and sustainable use of the territory. At a time when Europe fears the cold of winter and heat of energy crises, Andalusia sends more than splinters: exports clean energy, active forest management and future for their peoples. The mountain, finally, is again the protagonist. Image | Port of Seville Xataka | Sea water to heat the streets: the idea of a German city to have more sustainable heating

Thermal relief is already here but with a hand warning

The heat, undisputed protagonist of the first half of summer, seems to give us A truce. This time it is not a two or three day truce in which storms lower the temperature for a couple of days before the return of temperatures even more extreme than the previous ones. More fresh. Meteorological models foresee a week closer to normal as far as temperatures are concerned. Moreover: during the next few days We can see negative thermal anomalies In much of the Iberian Peninsula, that is, cooler temperatures than would correspond to these dates. Looking at the polar jet. How have we gone from a record heat to this “normality”? The answer to this question seems to be, mainly, in the Polar jet. More specifically, in the undulations that this current draws over its course. The polar jet is a barrier that separates cold air masses from the warmer air pole from subrtical latitudes. When winding can make polar air masses reach lower latitudes, bringing instability to these areas, which is what is expected to occur this week. We continue in summer. Of course from the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet) Remember that we continue in summer, and near the cannula, so fresh temperatures do not imply that heat will be completely. The forecasts Aemet talk about temperatures that could continue to exceed 34º in areas of the south during much of the week. In fact the Keep several notices For high temperatures for the next few days, in some areas of Andalusia, Murcia and Alicante. These notices will live on Wednesday with storms and rain warnings in some areas of the Pyrenees. Thermal relief will not imply a somewhat revolt situation. A new trough. And it is that thermal relief will not imply a less revolt situation. A trough driven by the polar jet will bring storms that can be intense in areas of the north and west. It is expected that the worst of this episode will begin to be noticed on Wednesday north of the Mediterranean aspect, extending during the following days to Levante and Balearic Islands. According to Describe Geographer Samuel Biener In Meteored, “it is not an episode of generalized rains, but of torments of a very irregular nature and capable of generating adverse phenomena, something that is common at this time.” On Friday the trough will lose its influence on our territory. Back to heat? By the weekend the situation could change again, which seems to indicate the return of heat for next week. Although There is still uncertaintysome models indicate the return of the heat at altitude, which would advance the arrival of new warm episodes such as those we saw the month of June. It may be more if we take into account its proximity to the days of cannula. In Xataka | The hydrological bonanza could not be eternal: drought is a real threat after an extremely warm, and also dry June Image | ECMWF

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