After many days of warnings from the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), the time has come. The intense cold is already here and all of Spain is wondering the same thing: how long will these icy days last in which low temperatures and frost are the main protagonists?
Well, the answer is now something different from what the Aemet experts were giving just a few days ago. The weather situation has changed and meteorologists warn that this week will be the coldest of the year 2023 and that, therefore, we still have a few days left with low temperatures below zero in a large part of the country and significant frosts in almost the entire territory.
The Aemet spokesperson, Bea Hervella, clarified this Monday that, after the weather changes experienced over the past weekend, the hope that the days of intense cold will end on Wednesday has vanished. Thus, despite the fact that the agency forecasts that on Thursday, January 26, the maximum temperatures will rise moderately and on Friday the same will happen with the minimum, this rise in thermometers will not be significant enough at any time this week to be allowed to stop. to speak of intense cold and low temperatures throughout the country, so this widespread icy sensation is not expected to pass until well into next week.
The Aemet has also detailed that the culprits of this icy streak that Spain is experiencing are the Hannelore storm, which is already over Sardinia, and an anticyclone that is currently over the Azores.
The forces of these two phenomena combined is causing the arrival of a large corridor of cold and generally dry air from northern Europe that this same Monday it will cover the northern third of our country from north to south, causing the cold to intensify, even though the environment is generally dry and therefore without precipitation.
But contrary to what may seem due to the low temperatures that are already being recorded, the Aemet spokeswoman has ruled out that these icy days can be interpreted as lThe first cold wave of the year 2023. The meteorologist explained that to speak of a “cold wave” some very specific conditions must be met which, for the moment, these days are not fulfilling despite being “on the edge” and everything indicates that they will not do so in the coming days either.
Yellow alerts for low temperatures
It can be called a cold wave or not, the reality is that the low temperatures that we are experiencing throughout the country are posing a significant risk to people’s health, especially in the Huesca and Lleida Pyrenees, where the fact that thermometers reach as low as -16 degrees has made Aemet activates yellow level risk alerts for this Monday 23 and the upgrade to the orange range for Tuesday 24, when they will also be activated in the Girona Pyrenees.
In addition, the strong coastal phenomena on the north coast of Girona, Menorca and Mallorca will also stand out this Monday, where rain and snowfall could also be recorded at around 500 meters as an exception to a generally dry environment.
The cold will not reach the Canary Islands
The geographical situation of the Canary Islands will mean that the archipelago remains on the sidelines of this exceptional episode of low temperatures. There, a slightly rainy day is expected with temperatures that will drop throughout the week but that will continue to reach maximum temperatures of 20 degrees this Monday in Lanzaronte, Fuerteventura and the south of Gran Canaria, and at 19 in La Palma and Tenerife.
Little by little the minimums will decrease until Friday they reach 10ºC in points such as Pájara in Fuerteventura, Mogán in Gran Canaria, La Orotava in Tenerife and 9ºC in Arona, also in Tenerife.
