Extreme heat: Lisbon and three other districts on red alert
The hot weather gripping Portugal will last at least a week. Four districts, including Lisbon, are under red warning from Thursday to Saturday, and an orange alert will cover mainland Portugal on Friday.
The Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) has raised to red (source in Portuguese) the warnings for the districts of Lisbon and Setúbal from midnight on Thursday until the end of the day on Friday, due to the “persistence of extremely high temperatures, both maximum and minimum”.
Coimbra and Leiria will also be under a red warning (the highest level on the scale, which signals an “extreme weather risk situation”) on Friday and on Saturday because of the hot, dry weather.
The districts of Castelo Branco, Portalegre, Évora and Beja are already this Wednesday under an orange warning (the second-highest level on the scale, which signals a “moderate to high weather risk situation”), which will be extended to the whole of mainland Portugal on Friday.
Maximum temperatures are expected to exceed 35 degrees across the country, with values above 40 degrees especially in inland and southern areas, and could reach 43 degrees in the Alentejo at least until Monday of next week.
Minimum temperatures will also be above 20°C in much of the mainland, with some regions where temperatures may not fall below 24 to 28°C for several nights, including Greater Lisbon.
According to the IPMA, this extreme heat episode is forecast to last for at least a week.
In a statement, the Portuguese meteorological institute explains that, “compared with the usual climate in mainland Portugal”, the situation will be particularly unusual in coastal regions, “where the lack of inland penetration of the sea breeze and/or its weak intensity will contribute to high temperatures over several consecutive days, creating a rare situation in some places”.
The weather in mainland Portugal is being influenced by an anticyclone located to the north/northwest of the Azores archipelago.
Very high to extreme ultraviolet levels in the coming days
The IPMA also warns that the very hot weather expected on the mainland in the coming days will bring very high to extreme values of the Ultraviolet Index.
Thus, across the mainland territory, up to Friday 3 July, very high values are expected in all districts, ranging from an Index value of 10, classed as very high, to an Index value of 11, corresponding to an extreme level.
The Portuguese institute advises against sun exposure around solar noon, when the UV Index reaches its maximum.
“Solar noon in mainland Portugal is reached at around 1.30 pm at this time of year, varying slightly with latitude, increasing by a few minutes from north to south,” explains the IPMA, recommending that people avoid sun exposure as much as possible, especially between 11 am and 4 pm, and use sunglasses with UV filter, a hat, a T-shirt, a parasol and sunscreen.
