Yellow Alert for Heat in Alicante Province

It's going to be hot, very hot in the coming days in the province of Alicante. The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has activated a yellow alert for Saturday and Sunday due to high temperatures. Forecasts indicated that these days would be the hottest in June on record, and everything seems to suggest that the predictions will come true.

The first affected areas will be the northern coast, where temperatures are expected to exceed 36 degrees in inland areas on Friday. Although the warning is concentrated in this coastal strip, the heat will also intensify in the south, with towns like Orihuela or Villena surpassing 35 degrees.

On Saturday, during the celebration of the Hogueras de Alicante, the heat is expected to intensify coinciding with the massive arrival of visitors from other regions. On that day, the most extreme temperatures could be recorded both on the northern and southern coasts, with highs more typical of August than mid-June.

Inland, maximum temperatures could reach 37 degrees, while on the coast, values will be somewhat more moderate: Alicante city will hover around 30 degrees, and Benidorm will be around 28.

Additionally, minimum temperatures will remain high. In many parts of the province, they will not drop below 20 degrees at night, which could make it difficult to sleep and increase the feeling of discomfort.

Aemet advises caution during the central hours of the day, especially for the elderly, children, and vulnerable groups. It also reminds the importance of staying well-hydrated and avoiding prolonged sun exposure.

A total of 36 provinces will be under warnings for rain, storms, and high temperatures this Friday, according to Aemet's forecast. The worst-hit areas will be several provinces under an orange level for heat: Córdoba, Jaen, and Seville (Andalusia); Huesca and Zaragoza (Aragon); Lleida (Catalonia); and Badajoz and Cáceres (Extremadura).

The rest of the high-temperature warnings will be issued in Cádiz and Granada (Andalusia); Teruel (Aragon); Liébana and Centro y Valle de Villaverde (Cantabria); Ávila, Salamanca, Valladolid, and Zamora (Castilla y León); Ciudad Real, Guadalajara, and Toledo (Castilla-La Mancha); Barcelona, Girona, and Tarragona (Catalonia); Lugo and Ourense (Galicia); Sierra de Madrid, Metropolitana y Henares, and Sur, Vegas y Oeste (Community of Madrid); Ribera del Ebro de Navarra (Foral Community of Navarra); Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya (Basque Country); Ribera del Ebro de La Rioja (La Rioja); and Alicante and Valencia (Valencian Community).

Aemet has announced that stable anticyclonic weather is expected at the beginning of the day for most of the country, with predominantly clear or slightly cloudy skies. There could be light haze in the southwestern peninsula and in the eastern Canary Islands.

As for temperatures, maximums will decrease in Huelva and northern Galicia, while increasing in the rest of the Cantabrian area and northwest quadrant, as well as on the Mediterranean coasts. In this context, temperatures are expected to exceed 34-36ºC in most of the southern and northeastern peninsular half, as well as in areas of the Northern Plateau and in parts of the extreme northwest and the Cantabrian, and they could also surpass in the Balearic Islands.

At the same time, temperatures will exceed 38-40ºC in northeastern depressions and in large areas of the southern half of the Atlantic slope. For minimums, slight changes will prevail, with increases in the eastern third of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, more pronounced in the Ebro, and decreases elsewhere. The provincial capitals with the highest forecasted maximums will be Seville and Córdoba with 40ºC.