Significant heat for Spain, Portugal and Madeira. Thunderstorms for mainland Europe

It’s not as hot nor humid for the UK now but Spain and Portugal have seen intense heat to start the working week. On Monday, El Granado (Huelva) saw 44.4C  in Spain and inland SE Portugal passed 40C. Smoke from Canadian wildfires is reaching the northeast of Iberia and Saharan dust is reaching the Algarve and south coast of mainland Spain.  Temperatures continue to tip into the low 40sC this week with heat and storm warnings from AEMET and IPMA. Madeira has a red heat warning for Tuesday 27th with Funchal reporting 36.9C with very high, even extreme UV today. This occurred to the lee of high ground, in a NE/E wind, with a drying Foehn effect across the mountains inland combined with hot air from NW Africa.

Update: provisionally 38.7C in the capital, Funchal on Tues 27th, which is the highest recorded temperature for Funchal. The Madeira record is 39.0 in August 1976 so this really was extreme heat for the island. 

By the weekend Funchal will be at 27C and 20C by night. Barcelona also 27C and Malaga 28C on Saturday but up two degrees on Sunday. Majorca and Ibiza will be around 29/30C with strong sunshine and calm conditions.

When our UK weather was warm and dry, seemingly settled for weeks there was plenty fo disturbed weather further south in Europe. The jet was split with one branch well away to the north, and another, encouraging low pressures with wind and rain towards Iberia and the western Mediterranean. Now the jetstream is closer to the UK, high above and we are seeing pulses of wet and windy weather from the west.

There will be a lot of fine, dry and sunny weather through the Mediterranean and for Greece and the Greek Islands temperatures will be in the high twenties to low thirties at the weekend.

There have been thunderstorms for mainland Greece but that risk fades. Germany has had warnings for thunderstorms and severe gusts with hail, these fade by Wednesday. There are strong wind warnings for the coast of Croatia, particularly for sailing craft from the Bora (Bura) wind. “Strong, locally near gale NE wind, especially during the morning, and in the evening again.” MeteoAlarm

Later in the week, there will be heavy downpours and thunderstorms developing for the south of France, Switzerland and across the Alps. In this area, the unsettled weather will energise later on Thursday and overnight into Friday as the cold front extends from Scandinavia down northern Italy and Corsica. The thundery rain then spreads over the Adriatic into central Italy and Rome reaching the Balkans with severe thunderstorms by Saturday and also further north, the Baltic States.

MeteoAlarm is the easiest way to keep an eye on official national weather warnings if you are travelling in Europe as torrential downpours, high gusts, frequent lightning and hail with flash flooding are possibilities in summer storm situations.

Across the Atlantic, there are no current tropical storms. TS Brett affected Barbados and the Lesser Antilles last week with heavy rain and high winds.  There is a tropical cyclone lull around the world this week.

Florida has high temperatures and a risk of thunderstorms. For Disney World in Orlando temperatures are reaching 37C but feeling even hotter with high humidity and “widely scattered storms are possible” later in the day (NWS)