Barcelona records second-highest temperature ever at 38.8ºC

This week continues to see more record highs and high minimum temperatures across Catalan weather stations. 

Catalan residents have yet again had to brave exceptionally warm nighttime temperatures, especially along the coast where lows were between 24ºC and 28ºC on average on Wednesday night.

This means millions of people have been faced with what meteorologists consider to be either tropical (over 20ºC) or torrid (over 25ºC) nighttime temperatures.

In Barcelona's Raval neighborhood, in the city center, the weather station recorded a 28.8ºC low.

This comes only a night after the city's Fabra Observatory, located in the Collserola hills, recorded a low of 29.4ºC, its highest-ever minimum nighttime temperature in 110 years of recording the data, surpassing the 28.6 ºC on August 8, 1923.

The Observatory also measured a maximum of 38.8ºC on Wednesday, the highest ever seen in any month of August, and the second-highest ever, only behind 39.8ºC on July 6, 1982.

A new record was also seen in the Ebre Observatory on Wednesday, which recorded a temperature of 43.6ºC. This surpassed the 43ºC seen on July 7, 1982, to be the hottest day in the Observatory's 118-year history.

The heatwave is expected to last until at least Friday, continuing to surpass 40ºC in parts of western, central, southern, and northern Catalonia on Thursday. 

There could, however, be some rain in the Pyrenees and a slight drop in temperatures not far inland from the coast. 

Daytime heat plan disactivated

Barcelona has disactivated the daytime alert phase of the Heat Plan that was activated on Wednesday.

The decision was taken because temperatures above 33°C are not expected for the next few days.

As part of the planexceptional measures, a team were sent out to the streets to distribute information, caps, and water bottles to homeless people in vulnerable situations, while also informing them of various climate shelters open in the city. 

However, given that night temperatures are expected to remain high, the emergency for torrid nights, which was activated last August 21, remains in place.

Restrictions extended due to high risk of wildfires

Catalan authorities have also extended the special measures in some areas of Catalonia for another day due to the very high risk of wildfires. 

The measures, announced on Monday, were initially expected to be effective until Friday at 12 am, and have been extended until Saturday, August 26 until 12 am.

70 municipalities in 13 counties have been placed in level 3 of the 'Pla Alfa' wildfire prevention plan

Banned high-risk activities include camping, hiking, and other sports activities in protected areas.