Weather Warning Warning

The state meteorological agency, Aemet, has been forced to comment on stories appearing in the press this week regarding the changes to threshold reporting for heat related phenomena, stating that these reports are fake news.

The reports revolve around Aemet lowering the temperature thresholds <<to be able to declare more extreme heat alerts>>, which they denounce as “a TOTALLY FALSE statement”.

Aemet explains that the thresholds of the warnings are agreed, within the Meteoalerta plan, with the different Civil Protection authorities. They have hardly changed since the beginning of this plan, in 2006. The last modification to the maximum temperature thresholds was in 2022 in Ibiza, Formentera, and Menorca. It consisted of raising the thresholds for issuing yellow, orange, and red warnings from 34, 37 and 39 °C to 36, 39 and 42 °C. Therefore, in this case the conditions for issuing warnings were hardened.

The Meteoalerta Plan is available on the Aemet website and includes all the modifications it has undergone since its inception.

Aemet also states that the issuance of our notices exclusively obeys to technical criteria related to the adversity after a thorough analysis and consensus by our specialised staff.

In addition, in the news the stories stated that “you could say that you don’t need to be alarmed so much whenever there is a red alert”, which Aemet considers very irresponsible, given the number of heat related deaths occurring in Spain. Red warnings pose an extraordinary danger, with potential catastrophic damage to people and property. Notices should never be underestimated, let alone red-level ones.

Another affirmation was that “news of heat waves and cautionary alerts are common throughout the summer and become increasingly frequent even when temperatures are not as high as in previous years.” Neither does it fit the truth: nine of the ten hottest summers have occurred in Spain in the 21st century. In addition, heat waves have gained in frequency, scope and intensity. Every ten years their duration increases by 3 days, affect 3 more provinces and are almost 0.3 °C warmer.

The matter further emphasises the importance of obtaining information from official sources, like Aemet, and in the Ministry of Health offers a free daily alert system for temperatures by email and SMS.