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Barcelona starts the week with summer heat and increasingly difficult nights
Barcelona starts the week with a clear feeling: May is already behaving like a summer month. Monday arrives with sunshine, some haze and highs around 28 degrees, a temperature somewhat more moderate than inland Catalonia but enough to change routines, clothing and outdoor plans.
The sea will help to slow the rise somewhat during the middle hours of the day. Even so, the city will not escape the heat. In dense neighbourhoods with little greenery, such as parts of Eixample, Sant Antoni or Raval, the feeling will be more oppressive, especially from midday and through the first part of the afternoon.
The night will be one of the most uncomfortable points. Lows will be around 18 degrees this Monday and Tuesday, but several parts of the urban fabric are already nearing the tropical-night threshold, reached when the thermometer does not fall below 20 degrees. Betevé had already warned in recent days that Barcelona is getting ever closer to recording the season's first tropical lows.
Tuesday will follow the same pattern, with sunshine, dry conditions and highs close to 29 degrees. The real jump will arrive from Wednesday, when the low could already be close to 20 degrees and the high could rise to 31. Thursday looks set to be the toughest day of the week, at around 32 degrees and with a clearly warmer night.
The spell does not appear to be short-lived. The forecast points to several days of stability, with few clouds and high temperatures on Friday too. A powerful anticyclone over Europe will favour this warm blockage, with highs above usual levels and increasingly mild nights across much of the continent. In Barcelona, the coast will soften the extremes, but will not prevent the feeling of persistent heat.
For those who can choose their timings, it will be most comfortable to concentrate errands, sport or long walks in the early morning. At midday and in the afternoon, it will be advisable to seek shade, stay hydrated and not be complacent about terraces or long journeys in the sun, because the heat is arriving sooner than many expected.
The most delicate part will be rest. Tropical nights are no longer a rarity in Barcelona, and every year they appear earlier or last longer. When the city cannot cool down at dawn, sleeping worse ceases to be a minor inconvenience: it affects mood, work, older people and those living in poorly ventilated flats. This week will not bring an extreme heat blow, but it will bring another fairly clear warning of how the urban summer is lengthening.