The “hot dome” also affects southern Europe. This phenomenon – albeit slightly different from that – two weeks ago led to crazy temperatures in the city of Lytton in western Canada at more than 49, causing severe weekends in southern Spain and Morocco. Temperatures are expected in Andalusia at 42, 43 and 44 C, as well as a good part of Spain. Spanish weather agency Emet has issued a new warning bulletin to invite people to take precautions.

What are the causes of this unusual heat wave? Hot air from the Sahara, which is stable in southern Spain. A “block high” presses it to the ground and compresses the air, making it hotter. This hot air compression dries the soil, which raises the temperature. The dome grows and the air becomes warmer. This is a very important phenomenon of increasing sunlight at this time of year.

The hottest temperatures are expected on Sunday and Monday, AEMET warns. 44 ° C in the Guadalquivir Valley in the south of the country. The city of Seville could experience a new heat record (until then set at 23.6 on July 23, 1995). On Monday, in the Marseille region, temperatures above 44 degrees Celsius were also feared. To break the absolute heat record compared to Spain? (47.3 C in Montero in July 2017). This is a theory that meteorologists do not reject.

Further south, the 50 C bar in Morocco and Algeria is likely to cross this weekend as much as the Fez (record low of 46.4 of C) or Maracak (near the record of 49.6 of C). Morocco’s National Heat Record was set on July 13, 1961 at Smara with a value of 50.3 of C.

France is not at all free from heat domes, ”the meteorologist explains to the LCI, which is located“ randomly in temperate latitudes ”. Christoph Cassou, CNRS researcher and lead author of the Sixth IPCC Report.

The country already knows a lot. The 2003 heat wave killed more than 20,000 people when two-thirds of the country’s stations recorded temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius, a hot dome. This also applies to the 2019 heatwave, where the Herald recorded a temperature of 46 C, exceeding the 44.1 C established by the Guard in August 2003.