Aemet activates amber and yellow alerts for heat, thunderstorms and strong winds in Andalucía today

In the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures soaring, thunderstorms accompanied by strong gusts of wind could be experienced in some parts of the Andalucía region today, Spain's state meteorological agency (Aemet) has warned. This phenomenon, known in Spanish as a "reventón" will hit this Thursday. Therefore, the state agency has activated yellow-level warnings in the provinces of Granada and Jaén. They will be in effect between 3pm and 9pm in the Genil basin, Guadix and Baza, the city of Jaén and Montes de Jaén. However, they will not last very long, as stability is expected to return from late evening.

Although there are no major rainy spells forecast, this cloudiness in the middle layers of the atmosphere will bring cloudiness. For now, Aemet forecasts for the day "intervals of cloudy skies, predominantly medium and high clouds, although occasional storms are possible, more likely in the inland mountain ranges, which may be locally strong and accompanied by very strong gusts of wind and mud deposits." The agency also points to "a slight presence of suspended 'calima' dust."

And all this on a Thursday marked by new yellow warnings for high temperatures that will keep five Andalusian provinces on alert. Almeria, Cordoba, Granada, Jaén, and Seville will endure very high maximum temperatures (most of them over 40C). Nights will also be torrid, with lows of 25C in Malaga, Almeria, and Jaén.

Although the main focus of this week's weather forecast in Spain will be intense and persistent heat, experts warn of the arrival of minor changes in the coming days. "The passage of small waves or pockets of cold air at altitude will favour the development of convective cloudiness on the Spanish mainland, leading to some thunderstorms," according to Meteored.

As experts from this specialised portal warn, more than the associated rainfall, we will need to monitor the likelihood of adverse phenomena such as thunderstorms, "which tend to occur in meteorological situations like the current one." It will also be important to closely monitor electrical activity, as the risk of forest fires will be very high or extreme in much of the country.

A "reventón" is a very intense downward current of air that descends from convective or storm clouds. "When they reach the ground, horizontal vortices are formed in which the wind accelerates, with gusts that can reach or exceed 100 km/h," explained Samuel Biener, a researcher and climatology communicator and editor of Meteored.

The maps predict that storms will spread to more regions over the weekend. They will appear in Aragon, the interior of the eastern half of the mainland, the northern Iberian Peninsula, the Pyrenees, mountainous areas of Andalucía, the northern Iberian Peninsula, inland regions of Catalonia, and in the northwest, in mountainous areas. "Locally heavy downpours may occur on these days in the Pyrenees, the Iberian System, and the Sierra Nevada," Biener concluded.