The storm ‘Oscar’, the fifteenth major weather phenomenon of this season, will affect the Peninsula this week, but especially the Canary Islands, where it will leave very heavy rains and very strong winds especially on Tuesday and Wednesday, and also widespread rainfall in the west and centre of the Peninsula, as reported by the spokesman for the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET).
The AEMET spokesman, Rubén del Campo, explained that this is the second time that a storm is named during the month of June due to the expected impacts, after the naming of ‘Miguel’ in 2019, and that this season, along with that of 2019-2020, is the most active in number of named storms, with 15 respectively.
Before its arrival, in the Peninsula this Monday will be repeated locally strong stormy showers and even in areas of eastern Castilla-La Mancha, interior of the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, very strong.
“The danger is significant,” insists the spokesman, who warns that the warnings are at orange level because more than 30 or 40 litres per square metre could fall in just one hour.
From Wednesday, Óscar will not only be felt in the Canary Islands but also on the Peninsula, with widespread rainfall in the western half and in the centre. In principle, the rains will not reach the Mediterranean.
Temperatures will rise on Monday and Tuesday but will clearly drop on Wednesday, although they will recover on Thursday. In general, the week will be milder than previous weeks, but still somewhat cooler than normal in the central and southern half of the peninsula, where, in any case, temperatures will exceed 25ºC in many places and even 30 or 32ºC in the south and east of the peninsula.
Specifically, Del Campo warns that tonight the first rains of Oscar will arrive on the island of La Palma and that on Tuesday its effects will be more noticeable in the archipelago, where there will be heavy or very heavy rains, especially in the west and south of the western islands, while in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote it will not rain with such intensity.
He also calls for “attention” to the wind, which will blow “very strongly” and could exceed 90 kilometres per hour in Tenerife and La Palma.
On the Peninsula, however, Tuesday will be a calmer day, without as many storms as the previous days, although they could be locally strong in mountain areas and their proximities in the northern half and the eastern third.
Temperatures will be higher, exceeding 25ºC in large areas of the territory and over 30ºC in the Ebro and Guadiana valleys and even over 32ºC in the Guadalquivir valley.
On Wednesday, ‘Oscar’ will continue to generate rain in the Canary Islands and it will be abundant in the mountainous islands, where it could be locally heavy and even persistent, and will be weaker in the eastern islands.
The wind will blow strongly in the Canary Islands and the winds will blow from the southwest and will be particularly strong in high areas.
STORM ‘OSCAR’: GALICIA AND SOUTHERN ANDALUSIA
On this day, ‘Oscar’ will also make its influence felt on the Peninsula with associated fronts that will leave rain in large areas of the territory, especially in the western half of the central area and in Andalusia.
The heaviest and most persistent rainfall will occur in Galicia and southern Andalusia. On the other hand, the areas with the lowest probability of precipitation on Wednesday will be the northeast, especially Aragon and Catalonia, as well as the Balearic Islands.
On Wednesday, temperatures will fall throughout most of the country except in some areas in the west and south of the Peninsula, where they will drop by 6 to 8 degrees Celsius. In the Cantabrian Sea, Bilbao, Seville will reach 30ºC; in Zaragoza or Oviedo, 27 or 28ºC, while in Madrid, Salamanca and the centre of the peninsula it will be barely 20ºC.
On Thursday, the spokesman still expects occasional showers in the Canary Islands of greater relief, but the effects of tropical storm Óscar will clearly diminish as it moves away from the archipelago, where the winds will diminish.
However, fronts will continue to arrive in many areas of the Iberian Peninsula. The lower and middle Ebro, the Mediterranean coast of the Levante and the Balearic Islands will remain somewhat on the sidelines. During that day, temperatures will clearly recover in most of the country.
As for the following days, there could still be a probability of precipitation, although at first it seems that it will be more limited to the north and east of the Peninsula than the previous days and temperatures, in general, will not experience major variations, but they will rise in the eastern third and in the Mediterranean area.
Del Campo points out that in inland areas of these Mediterranean communities of the Levant, temperatures may exceed 30 or 32ºC, as well as in the valleys of the Ebro and Guadalquivir rivers.
