February has a reputation for being unpredictable and this 2023 has not wanted to deny it. If this week began with temperatures much higher than usual for this time of year, the atmosphere has stepped on the accelerator and we are going to end with a drop in temperatures that is dizzying. In many parts of the peninsula, the thermometers are going to drop up to 15 degrees in just two days.
Goodbye to the haze, goodbye to spring. hello again winter.
A frozen mass and loaded with water. As I write these lines, a frigid air mass is moving south and, aided by the fact that the Atlantic anticyclone is far to the north, it will gradually invade the entire peninsular territory. The result is that we are going to have polar cold at low levels.
But the atmospheric configuration goes further because the anticyclone It causes the cold air masses that are going to reach the country to be loaded with humidity and that can translate into a very considerable amount of water and snow.
Cold very cold. where first it will be noticed is in the north of the country. There, the week began with temperatures above 20 degrees and will end below 10 degrees. In fact, there are a good number of inland cities (Burgos, Ávila or Vitoria) that are going to be left with temperatures above zero during the day, but just barely: yes, at night, it will not be unusual to find areas at -10º.
On Thursday, however, the cold it will already be installed throughout the peninsula and it would not be unusual for the highs in the interior to end up the same as the lows registered on Monday or Tuesday.
Snow! Snow at the gates of March! At the same time, the rains will start on Wednesday night also in the north and will spread along with the cold. Precisely for this reason (and because we are going to be cold at all levels of the atmosphere), much of that moisture is going to fall as snow. We are talking about up to 60 centimeters on the Cantabrian coast.
The final fireworks of winter? It’s hard to know. For days now, the weather forecasters have been closely following the sudden stratospheric warming that began last week. The impact-type of large disruptions in the troposphere are difficult to model. Above all, because its effects expand beyond three weeks (and predicting at that time distance is practically impossible).
