weather

How to add AccuWeather to ChatGPT to request the best weather information

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Let’s tell you how to link AccuWeather to ChatGPTso that you can use all the information from one of the best weather apps for your queries. With this, the artificial intelligence OpenAI no longer searches the Internet when you ask about the weather or future forecasts, but will search directly in the information in the app. You will be able to do this because AccuWeather has been included in the list of applications ChatGPTwhich allow you to interact with them and their information. With this, you will be able to have hyperlocal weather informationforecasts, and even see any weather alerts there may be. You can even ask about the chances of rain and when it is most likely to occur. Add AccuWeather in ChatGPT The first thing you have to do is open ChatGPT and Click on the section Applications in the left column. This will take you to an index with a search engine. In it, you have to search the term AccuWeatherso that it appears as the only result. When you see it, click on the name of the application. You will enter the AccuWeather tab, where you will have all the information about what you will be able to do with this application. Within this tab, press the button Connect to proceed to add the application. When you go to connect, you will go to a screen where allows you to activate the consultation of memories and chats when using AccuWeather. This is optional. If you activate it, you will be sending AccuWeather information about everything you talk about with ChatGPT, but also other information such as the city where you live, so that you do not need to say it when you ask for weather information. Use AccuWeather on ChatGPT Once you have linked the application, you can use it. To do this, when you open a new chat with ChatGPT, before doing anything, click on the + button to open the options window, click on Furtherand Click on AccuWeather in the list that appears to activate it within this conversation. When you do, you’ll know the app is activated because it will stay still below the writing field. This means that whatever you are going to ask ChatGPT now, the AI ​​will look for it in this application. Now, with AccuWeather activated you can ask ChatGPT to tell you any weather information you want. The AI ​​will look for the answers in the application, and will give you the information it has collected. AccuWeather will remain activated in this ChatGPT conversation, so you can return to it when you want to ask a new question or continue asking about something you had asked before, even ask it to update the information. In Xataka Basics | How to create an image of yourself and a Pixar character with your face using artificial intelligence, with Gemini or ChatGPT

With the arrival of good weather in Ukraine, Russia thought it was a good idea to bring out its hidden tanks. It wasn’t at all

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In 2022, many analysts assumed that tanks would remain the undisputed symbol of land power, but four years later the battlefield has evolved to the point where multi-ton vehicles can be neutralized for systems that fit in a backpack and cost thousands of times less. A return at the worst time. Winter is giving way to spring in Ukraine, and Russia has decided it was time to bring out its armored vehicles again after almost one year of limited useconvinced that she could regain initiative on the front. However, this movement has collided head-on with the current reality of the battlefield: an environment saturated with drones, remote mines and sensors where any concentration of vehicles becomes an almost immediate target. What on paper should have been an offensive reactivation has translated, in its first stages, in massive losses of material, with mechanized attacks that have ended in authentic “massacres” in a matter of minutes. From hiding to exposing yourself. For much of the last year, Russia had chosen to reduce the use of vehicles and advance with small groups of infantry to minimize their exposure. That tactic, although costly in lives, was more difficult to neutralize in a battlefield dominated by drones. But the enormous human wear and tear (with hundreds of thousands of casualties) has forced Moscow to rethink its approach. The return to mechanized attacks is not so much a choice as a necessity: replacing men with machines, even if that means assuming a new type of vulnerability. The Soviet heritage. It we have counted on other occasions. To sustain this change, Russia has begun to turn to its deeper reservesreactivating T-72 tanks from the 1970s and 1980s that remained in storage for years. This movement reveals an important turn in the contest, because it is no longer about deploying the best available, but rather to maintain volume at any price. The Russian military industry is still capable of regenerating units, but increasingly with older materialmore heterogeneous and less adapted to an environment where threats come from above and not from the front. A battlefield that does not forgive armor. The problem from the Moscow sidewalk is that the context has radically changed. Drones, capable of detecting, tracking and attacking vehicles with great precision, have turned mechanized advances into operations andxtremely risky. Added to this are remotely deployed mines and coordinated attacks that turn any movement in a trap. What was once the spearhead of offensives now behaves like a slow, visible and predictable target, especially when deployed in a group. Hit logistics to wear out. In addition, a parallel strategy is added to this direct pressure on the vehicles: the continuous attack to the rear. The Ukrainian coups against fuel tankslogistics nodes and supply centers seek to make any accumulation of armored vehicles on the front meaningless. And without fuel and maintenance, even a large number of vehicles lose operational value. Thus, the Russian problem is not only how many tanks you can deploy, but how long you can keep them functioning in real combat conditions. Accelerate burnout. In short, Russia appears to be trading a depleting resource (the labor) for another that is also beginning to become scarce: his armored legacy of the Cold War. In the short term it may be able to sustain the pressure on the front, but if current losses continue, the material cost can quickly grow to become unsustainable. In that scenario, the return of the tanks It does not seem to represent a return to conventional warfare, but rather a risky bet on a battlefield that has already evolved. faster than them. Image | Telegram In Xataka | Iran is winning the war with “Ukrainian mathematics”: there is no need to shoot down US fighters, it is enough to force them to take off In Xataka | Europe’s fear of an unprecedented situation in the Mediterranean: a Ukrainian drone has left a ticking bomb floating

the best websites and apps to know what weather you are going to have on your vacation

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We are going to give you a list of services and applications to see the weather in the next Holy Week. Thus, now that the dates of the long weekend are approaching and you are surely preparing the trip, you will be able to know if you are going to need an umbrella or if it would be better to put the sunscreen in your suitcase. In each of the applications we are going to give you key information, such as the number of days for which they have a forecast, and even where they get the data from in some cases. Weather apps for Easter Let’s now go to our list of services to watch the weather. As most of them work with both a website and mobile apps, we are not going to make two lists, but rather we will make one with links to the mobile application stores and their browser version. AEMET: The official application of the State Meteorological Agency, where you will have official information and reliable forecasts. It has 7-day forecasts and hour-by-hour information for 8,000 Spanish municipalities, and also has information on rain, adverse atmospheric phenomena and beaches. Links: aemet.es, Google Play and App Store. 1Weather: A veteran mobile application that offers you ten-day forecasts. It has real-time information, detailed forecasts, elegant animations and widgets for your phone. Of course, some mobile models are not compatible. Links: Google Play and App Store. Accuweather: One of the most important weather apps there is, so much so that many applications from mobile manufacturers use its data. It offers two-week forecasts, rainfall amounts, and even radar to know when storms are approaching. Links: accuweather.com, Google Play and App Store. The Time: Beyond the official or international ones, this is one of the most reliable apps to know the weather in Spain. It will offer you detailed forecasts for the next 48 hours and other general ones for 14 days, and there is also information by location on temperature, thermal sensation, clouds, atmospheric pressure, air quality or pollen levels. Link: eltiempo.es, Google Play and App Store. Meteored: One of the leading apps in Spain to give you weather information, which allows you to see how much rain it is getting and gives you forecasts 14 days in advance. Links: meteored.com, Google Play and App Store. Rain Alarm: One of those magical apps that have been essential for more than 10 years. It does not offer weather forecasts, but is simply a radar that warns you when it is about to rain, and in which you can see the evolution of the clouds. You can set alerts so that they reach you when the rains approach a certain distance, and you will be able to see the evolution of the clouds in the sky to see how they are approaching or leaving. Links: rain-alarm.com, Google Play and App Store. The Weather Channel: Another of those apps whose data is used by many other manufacturers, such as Apple in its weather app. It offers 15-day forecasts, maximum and minimum temperatures, humidity, wind gusts, pressure, condensation and everything you need. Links: weather.com, Google Play and App Store. Time and Radar: Another weather application, with rain radar and 14-day predictions. It has data such as air quality index, pollen quantities and news related to weather changes. Links: tiempoyradar.es, Google Play and App Store. WeatherBug: One of the oldest weather forecast applications for mobile phones, and one of the most aesthetic. You have current information and forecasts by hours or days. Depending on the weather, the interface varies, and you also have information about the weather, air quality, fires or lightning strikes. Links: weatherbug.com, Google Play and App Store. Weather Underground: A good app with very accurate and hyperlocal forecasts, since it has a system for users themselves to provide weather information from the weather stations in their homes. Links: wunderground.com, Google Play and App Store. Windy: An application specialized in showing the wind that is going to be anywhere in the world, although it also shows temperature, rain, nine or pressure. All this on an interactive map and in real time. Links: windy.com, Google Play and App Store. yr: The official meteorological service of Norway. Despite being Scandinavian, it has coverage for everyone, with especially surprising precision. Links: yr.no, Google Play and App Store. In Xataka Basics | How to know where any Renfe train is in Spain in real time, and know if it has any delays

Spain has been dealing with the weather in the United Kingdom for a month and a half. And that forces us to rethink how we build our roads

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Roads closed, prohibited overtaking and new speed restrictions, landslides that are swept away by a moving car or potholes that become sinkholes with the continued passage of vehicles. The roads in Spain have suffered greatly with a month and a half in which a succession of storms has barely given any respite. But is the fault of the investments or is it that we are not prepared for this climate? Potholes, sinkholes and closed roads. We have experienced a beginning of 2026 where news of intense snowfalls and continued rains have accumulated. And that has had an impact on the way we move. In some cases, airports have been forced to stop their activitythe trains have stopped due to the wind and, on the road, we have had all kinds of problems. Videos have become popular on social networks where a string of cars suffers the consequences of a sinkhole. Or the statements of those who affirm that in the same service area they have had to rescue a good handful of cars due to blowouts as a result of the poor condition of the roads. There is information that points to all types of roads: those managed by the Statethose that are from autonomous ownership and those that are from municipal ownership. We have had complaints for everyone. An unexpected event. Beyond the money dedicated to our roads, what seems clear is that a perfect storm has occurred: roads that should be better maintained and a succession of storms for which our roads are not prepared. If we look back, in the first 40 days of the year it rained in Spain triple the average recorded between 1991 and 2020. The recorded figure not only confirms that the swamps have filledalso calls into question to what extent Spain is becoming in a rainy country. And, above all, how we can prepare for climate change with more extreme weather events, repeated more frequently and further away from the typical climate of our country. Are we prepared? The truth is that our roads are prepared for something else. In Spain, roads are based on the PG3 regulations that draws on the European guidelines. Most of them respond to the premises aimed at building roads in hot climates. In fact, the next category is for a “medium” thermal zone and the next is considered “temperate.” This is important because as I said Francisco José Lucas Ochoatechnical and business development director at Repsol in his Twitter account, some time ago, on these roads A bitumen is used that is harder and withstands high temperatures better.. In the wetter climates A softer bitumen is used, as in the United Kingdom, but this can soften and melt if it is very hot. Our disadvantage? Asphalt resists high temperatures better but is more fragile and breaks more easily. This structure on our road leaves us, in most of the country (because high mountain roads are slightly different), roads that are less permeable to the passage of water. And the main objective has never been to resist humidity, it has been to resist extreme heat and fatigue due to the passage of numerous vehicles, since Spain is the second country in Europe with the highest heavy vehicle traffic. What consequences does it have? Asphalts designed for dry climates that have to suffer constant punishment from rain and humidity are more likely to accumulate water and encourage aquaplaning. But when the absorption of water is continuousthe problems are bigger. If the soil receives a constant amount of water, there comes a point where the layers beneath the asphalt remain constantly moist. This alters its ability to distribute loads, which is essential when you have a more rigid or less elastic asphalt like ours. This limited distribution of loads favors the fracture of the upper layer, generating potholes that end up becoming sinkholes both due to the action of the vehicles themselves and the punishment inflicted by the constant fall of water, further delving into the depth of the hole that is exposed. In addition, the useful life of asphalt is limited. Where it doesn’t rain and where it does rain. The added problem is that this train of storms has left a lot of rain where the roads are directly designed to withstand intense vehicle traffic circulating in a dry and hot climate. Andalusia and Extremadura have faced rains typical of Cantabria but, curiously, in Cantabria it has barely rained. In United Kingdomwhere the problem of water on the road is a constant, the construction of roads plays with the porosity of the asphalt, with the aim of making the soil capable of absorbing as much water as possible. A technique that is applied to the surface itself but in which the ditches are also taken into account so that the accumulated water does not infiltrate and, as we said, change the ideal load distribution. This type of asphalt is limited in Spain to very specific areaswith limited traffic and low risk of snow and smelt. In cold and humid climatesFor example, they have to deal with asphalt that is also more rigid but without losing sight of the accumulation of water. There the problem is not so much the latter as it is the formation of ice and the passage of vehicles equipped with studded tires on depending on which roads. If the road were as porous as in the United Kingdom, water would accumulate in the small gaps in the road surface and freeze, turning the road into a skating rink. Is there a solution? Yes and it seems to be underway. From 2021the Center for Studies and Experimentation of Public Works (CEDEX) coordinates the Transversal Working Group on Climate Change and Resilience in Roads. This group is analyzing the current situation of Spanish roads and infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels or aqueducts and what investments must be made to adapt them to the new meteorological reality of our country. Furthermore, in collaboration with CEDEX … Read more

AEMET has just talked about the December long weekend and it is bittersweet news because the “good weather” in December always has a trick

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Yes ‘negative NOA‘, yes ‘storm train‘, but what AEMET says is that, during the bridge (after some persistent rain in the north), what we are going to have is a predominance of sun and higher than normal temperatures. How is it possible? What dark atmospheric dynamics are conspiring to give us good weather on the Constitution Bridge? The rhombus phenomenon. That’s what he called it meteorologist Luismi Pérez on Cadena Ser and the truth is that the explanation is so visual that it can help us understand what is happening. “Rhombus” is a colloquial way of defining an isobaric configuration that diverts the cold to North America and gives stability, little rain and high temperatures to our country. And what does it take for that to happen? Four masses of air are needed to achieve this: a robust anticyclone in Newfoundland and Greenland another anticyclone in the Mediterranean area a storm in the Azores and another in the Scandinavian peninsula In the image above it is still difficult to see, but arranged on the isobar map “they form an approximate figure of a rhombus.” Why it is important. Meteorologically speaking, the rhombus describes a type of atmospheric block very characteristic: a reconfiguration of the polar jet and the trajectory of the storms that takes us away from the coldest scenarios. Yeah the face is the train of stormsthis is the cross: short periods of stability and good temperatures. What we can expect in the coming days. As Pérez explainedthis rhombus “makes” the very cold air accumulated in Greenland slide towards the west; that is, towards North America, instead of falling on Europe. In addition, Spain (being under the influence of the Azores storm and the Mediterranean anticyclone) is assured of westerly and southwesterly winds, which are more temperate and pleasant. What we can expect in the long term. Because in the background there is something more serious: changes in the atmospheric circulation of the Atlantic Ocean. That is to say, the increase in the number of episodes of stability, clear skies and absence of fronts in autumn and winter. Something that can be perceived as “good weather”, but that aggravates the structural drought and complicates water, agricultural and energy planning. Luckily, it looks like it won’t last long. Just enough to let us enjoy the bridge Image | ECMWF In Xataka | The most beautiful, exciting and hopeful thing about November has come out of England and it is a weather forecast

After years of searching, I have finally found the perfect Weather app for Android. And he just received superpowers

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If the question is how many weather apps do we have available on Android, the answer is “yes”. This is great because we have a lot to choose from, the problem is precisely that: there are so many that finding the one that is perfect for me seemed like a utopia. I finally found it and To my surprise, it’s from Google. Its problem, and because of how long it took me to discover it, is that it is a bit hidden. The weather app that Google doesn’t want you to use I’m not talking about the classic Google weather app that comes pre-installed on many Androids, but about the other Google weather app, one that It is only on the Google Pixel and what I discovered thanks to my colleagues from Xataka Android. The app is called ‘Pixel Weather’ or, in Spanish, ‘Pixel Weather’. It premiered with the Pixel 9 in 2024 and remains exclusive to Google mobile phones. That means that if you try to install it from the Play Storeit will tell you that “none of your devices are compatible.” But don’t despair, you can have it on any Android thanks to the installation via APK. However, remember that there are risks and download it only on reference portals like APKMirror. An exquisite and very functional design Pixel Weather has the design you would expect from a Pixel-only app. I really like the Material You interface because it is very clean and clear; Even in apps with many features like this one, it makes all the elements look super clear and conveys a feeling of simplicity. The interface is beautiful On the home screen we have the very large temperature and below it the different blocks with information such as the hourly forecast or the forecast up to 10 days. Below we have more information, all with a design reminiscent of a panel of widgets of different sizes. The good thing about Pixel Weather and why it has conquered me is because It is completely customizable. Do you prefer to have higher wind speeds? No problem, just hold down on the block you want to move and drag it to the new position. The only thing you won’t be able to move is the hourly forecast, which always remains fixed at the top, but everything else can be moved freely. We can move all the blocks as if we were arranging the home screen icons. Sliding down we have more widgets with different designs, such as the UV index one that is shaped like a sun or the humidity percentage widget that simulates being full of water. I also like it because at first glance it seems like a very simple app, but in reality it has much more information; By clicking on each of these widgets we obtain the hourly forecast about the specific data we are consulting, such as wind speed or relative humidity. The two widgets available talking about widgetsthe app offers us two to add to the home screen. The smallest one only has the temperature and an icon of the weather status, while the large one gives us the hourly forecast and more details such as the thermal sensation. I especially like the small widget for its oval design. Now with the best Google model That the app is very beautiful and functional is very good, but if the data it offers is not accurate, it is not of much use. This is not the case with Pixel Weather, in the time I have been using it it has been correct in its rain forecasts with quite a bit of accuracy regarding the time, but it has also been a few days ago. Google DeepMind announced that they have integrated WeatherNext 2his AI weather prediction model more advanced. According to DeepMind, WeatherNext 2 generates forecasts up to eight times faster than the previous model and its accuracy is better in 99.9% of variables. The innovation is that it uses an FGN or ‘functional generative network’ that injects noise into the model to achieve forecasts that are physically realistic. They have also integrated it into Google search, Gemini and will soon be in Maps. Images | Amparo Babiloni, Xataka In Xataka | The most beautiful, exciting and hopeful thing about November has come out of England and it is a weather forecast

The two most important weather models in the world are discussing whether Santander is going to freeze next week. And the cold is winning

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Where has all the cold gone? So far this fall (with the sole exception of Siberia), temperatures have been relatively mild on all continents. And it seems that the situation is going to continue like this: it is true that the forecasts speak of a progressive decrease in temperatures in the southeast of Canada, the eastern United States and northern Europe; but no model paints a scenario that is particularly cold (except some very long term prediction). However, all eyes are on the polar vortex. If the models are right, it is very possible that the vortex will experience an unprecedented disturbance in November, leading to an interesting weather period starting in December. “There is no way this is fulfilled.” While November continues with its strange meteorology, the models draw increasingly strange scenarios. At this point in the week, we cannot rule out that on the 18th and 19th we have a more than considerable winter storm with the ‘beast from the east‘looming over Western Europe. In the next few hours we will have a war between models: The American marks a cold entry on Santander, the European said no. Little by little, the two seem to be converging towards a cold scene. It’s too early to say, but in a very few hours the daisy will be shedding its leaves. Anyway, the central issue is that all of this is minute sin. The breaking of the vortex. Except for that event in the middle of next week, autumn will continue to be very warm and mild on almost all continents. However, this could change if sudden stratospheric warming appears. That is, the vortex breaks. Sudden stratospheric warming? To understand it simply, we have to remember that the atmosphere is a kind of “lasagna of air layers” and each of them follows its own logic. That is, they work quite differently and independently. As far as it affects us: the circulation of air in the troposphere (the one closest to the surface) and the circulation in the stratosphere (the layer directly above) are related, yes; But, in general terms, they each do their own thing. During the “sudden stratospheric warming“, a part of the troposphere warms rapidly and, as a consequence, invades the stratosphere, causing a profound alteration of the circulation at high altitude. That is, for a few days, everything turns upside down. And what happens? The most common consequence of this is that the polar vortex weakens and may break down. The polar (arctic) vortex is a current of air that runs from west to east around the north pole and contains cold air at high latitudes. When this current is strong and stable, preventing it from flowing towards places like Spain. If the vortex It destabilizes and its winds lose strength (due to, for example, “sudden warming”), it is relatively common for cold air masses to escape on their way south. What if it doesn’t break? In reality, the vortex does not even need to break. It only needs to move from the Arctic region to lower latitudes. By moving a huge mass of cold air with it, the result is always very similar: an icy cold that can turn any country upside down (even the best prepared ones). And that seems to be what we are going to see. It’s hard to know if it will affect us or not, but there’s no doubt that the late fall weather is getting “interesting.” Image | Meteociel In Xataka | The last hope of winter in Spain is desperate, but increasingly possible: the breaking of the polar vortex

The most beautiful, exciting and hopeful thing about November has come out of England and it is a weather forecast

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The most beautiful, interesting and hopeful thing about November has come out of a cold building in the British city of Reading and it is a weather forecast. In its latest seasonal reading, the European Weather Forecast Center has sounded the alarm: Your data points to a negative NAO. And that, as you may have guessed, is magnificent news for Spain. But let’s go in parts and explain what we’re talking about.. The ‘NAO’ is the ‘North Atlantic Oscillation‘: the ‘dance’ between the Azores anticyclone and the Icelandic low, the two major atmospheric phenomena that govern the meteorology of the North Atlantic. When the index we use to “measure who is winning” is negative, the Azores anticyclone is weaker than normal and, for this reason, it cannot block deep Atlantic storms. The direct consequence is that they circulate further south than normal: right at our latitude. That is, precisely, what the ECMWF has planned from its headquarters in Reading, England. Kristian Strommen et al. (2021) It is not an isolated prediction. On the contrary, experts they have been warning weeks of a 2025-26 winter conditioned by La Niña and a potentially weaker polar vortex; that is, with greater probability of cold bursts in southwestern Europe. This is the double confirmation we needed for a seasonal prediction that (seasonal as it is) remains too generic and uncertain. But how positive it is. Why is it important? As I say, for Spain this is, in aggregate termsgood news. By increasing the frequency with which cyclones deviate south (favoring the Atlantic storms that reach us), the direct positive impact is noticeable on the level of reservoirs and the price of energy. How much can we trust a prediction of this type? Moderately. There is no doubt that meteorologists have greatly improved their ability to capture trends, but let’s not fool ourselves: it is already difficult for us to predict 15 days ahead, the seasons and months are another matter. However, it is not a random prediction. We simply have to understand it as a risk or a probable scenario and not as a deterministic and closed forecast. Because, in the end, in the enormous set of possible scenarios, this begins to be the most probable. And, if confirmed, our reservoirs will thank us. Image | WeatherModels In Xataka | Ski resorts without snow at the end of the century: the most pessimistic models show what could happen in our high mountains

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

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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

Zaragoza witnessed this weekend of a most unique weather event: a supercell

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From an extreme drought that ravaged the Iberian Peninsula for more than a year we have passed to a few months during which the extreme phenomena have come characterized by intense rainfall. We have seen various rainfall records beaten and we have also seen the most tragic face of these events. A new extreme event. Although it will not come with the destructive power of other storms, the province of Zaragoza has witnessed during the weekend of a new extreme event, A supercell. Supercells are storms with defined characteristics that make them a kind of miniature cyclone. They are more typical of areas such as the great plains of the United States than from Spain, but on Saturday the Aragonese could witness one of these storms. On Sunday, the State Meteorology Agency (AEMET) maintained yellow alerts for adverse phenomena in a good part of the area between the Ebro Valley and the Pyrenees. Notices that materialized in intense storms. The same day, Aemet shared through its social networks some images of this unique storm. Supercells are intense but not completely strange phenomena: similar events were also recorded in the region, according to explained at the time The local press. On that occasion, the storms came to cause a blackout in the city of Huesca, He pointed to the HERALDO DE ARAGÓN. What exactly is a supercell? Supercells are storms With an organized structure. In them, an ascending current transports, sometimes with high speeds, warm air from the surface to higher areas. There, the warm and humid air joins the cold and dry air, which leads to rainfall that can be intense and result in hails. The coexistence of an ascending and another descending current is one of the characteristics of these storms. One that also implies that these types of events can be extended for a certain time. This encounter between warm and cold air has another effect: it makes the storm turn. This triggers another of the characteristics of this type of storms, a mesocyclone, that is, an intermediate cyclone. From hail to tornadoes. According to explains the geographer Pedro de la Fuente to Meteoredthis type of storm involves risks derived from their rainfall and the winds associated with them. These adverse phenomena include hail, which can reach an important size; floods, as a consequence of rainfall, or important bursts of descendant wind. One of the most striking effects of this type of storms are, however, tornadoes. These are not frequent, even when these types of storms occur, but they can be one of the most relevant consequences of the supercells. From Ebro to the Mediterranean. If the storms in the Ebro valley have been protagonists during the weekend, the Mediterranean could take over on Thursday, Meteorologists point out. The storms could affect in particular the southern zone of the Valencian Community, as well as Murcia, Albacete and east of the province of Cuenca. In Xataka | “One of the most extreme phenomena in history”: meteorologists are dismayed before the heat wave of Africa and Asia Image | Matthieu pron

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