
Very hot summer's day in the Iberian peninsula
12 July 2017 05:00–13 July 00:15 UTC


After a hot period in mid-June 2017, the Iberian Peninsula suffered a second heat wave in the second week of July, peaking on 13 July with a record maximum air temperature of 47.3 °C at Montoro, near Cordoba.
05 May 2023
12 July 2017
By Jose Prieto (EUMETSAT)
The definition of a heat wave from AEMET (the Spanish Meteorological Agency) refers to percentage thresholds exceeded in a number of stations, sustained for longer than three days and based on climatological values in July and August, the hottest months. In the last few years heat waves outside of those months seem to happen more frequently.
Satellites do not sense air temperature close to the ground. There is a difference of a few degrees celsius between the air temperatures and the soil temperatures. Soil temperatures are easier to determine with the help of satellites, which provide continuous coverage of large surfaces. This soil/air difference varies with wind, Sun radiation and soil type, plus moisture or vegetation.
For 12 July, the Meteosat-10 infrared animation shows the evolution of soil temperatures, as conservatively estimated from the brightness temperatures at channel 10.8µm.
Some central and southern peninsular areas absorb the solar radiation more efficiently than other regions, and reach soil values of up to 54°C for the pixel average, and obviously higher at many smaller areas.
The daily evolution of the ground temperature peaks around 13:00 UTC, as estimated from both the Meteosat-10 10.8µm channel and from the 3.9µm channel. The difference between 3.9µm–10.8µm peaks, on average, at 11:15 UTC (midday locally), as a result of the soil reflected component being at its highest around noon (see Figure 2).
For the individual channels, the peak happens about two hours later, at 13:00 UTC, as a consequence of soil thermal inertia. Furthermore, the peak in air temperature happens another two hours later, because of the poor conductivity of the dry air.
The fact that the mentioned difference between channels 3.9µm and 10.8µm is usually negative can be explained by the low emissivity at channel 3.9µm for dry areas, while the Sun's contribution is weaker than the hot soil contribution.
An illustration of the asymmetry between the morning warming and the evening cooling is provided on Figure 3, showing two moments in the day, morning and afternoon, with similar brightness temperatures on Meteosat-10.8µm. For different kinds of terrain, the cooling happens at different speed. In particular, the crops south of Guadalquivir (letter G in Figure 2) take longer to loose heat than hilly areas (letters W and C).
Figure 4 shows two proxies for soil classification. At first glance, both sets of images show a low correlation, indicating that the emissivity is not the only explanation for the variability (and maximum temperature forecasting). Air humidity could also contribute to the variation.
Additional content
Nuevo récord absoluto de calor en España: 47,3°C (New absolute heat record in Spain: 47.3°C ) (La Vanguardia, in Spanish)
Spain heatwave breaks records and kills one (Inquirer)
Hot hot hot! Heatwave reaches peak with record temperatures (The Local)