Severe thunderstorm line is crossing central Europe today, while heat wave dominates Iberia
A severe thunderstorm line is heading northeastwards towards Germany and Scandinavia bringing heavy rain, hail and strong wind gusts. At the same time central and southwestern Europe has temperatures 8-12°C above normal the last few days and it looks that the heat wave will continue to affect Spain reaching locally 37-40°C on Friday.
Severe thunderstorms across central Europe: an Atlantic long-wave trough has met a plume of warm air which is centered across central Europe, creating instability across the western Europe today. A strong southwesterly jet stream is bringing arctic air masses directly from Greenland, meeting warm air masses from the high pressure system which dominates much of Europe the last few days. This today has already caused severe thunderstorms across the southern UK, France and the Low countries which were accompanied by strong wind gusts, hail and big accumulation rates. A big pressure and temperature difference has occurred the last few hours, bringing a quick weather change. An increasing MLCAPE, strong vertical wind shear (lowest 3 km, reaching 10 m/s) has created a squall line in the last few hours across the Low countries and is heading now towards Germany and Denmark. The next hours as the squall line is passing through Germany can produce hail and there is a risk of possible tornadoes. At night it will reach southern Norway and Sweden bringing thunderstorms, but the system will be more weak overnight. Tomorrow, a low pressure system accompanied by fronts will bring more unsettled weather across southern UK, France and central Europe. The low pressure system will travel fast across the countries due to the strong westerly jet stream, bringing big accumulation rates across northwestern France, the Low Countries, Germany and southern Scandinavia. Severe thunderstorms are predicted to bring locally hail and strong wind gusts. This severe weather will bring a temperature drop close to 6-8°C.
Temperatures 8-12°C above normal across central and southwestern Europe: at the same time A high pressure system which dominates the last few days much of Europe is bringing an intense temperature rise and temperatures above normal across the western and central Europe. The temperature anomaly is more intense across Iberia, France, Germany and the Alps with temperatures 8-12°C above normal. In more detail, the warm wave brought temperatures that are appearing normally in July and August with maximum temperatures reaching 37°C on Wednesday in Cordoba (normal temperature 25°C), 37°C Granada and 36°C in Seville. Some monthly records occured in France where the maximums reached 35°C in Cap Ferret, 34°C in Montelimar, while Paris reached a maximum temperature of 28°C and a minimum of 20°C (probably a record), while the normal temperature is reaching 18°C and the minimum 10°C. Next few days the temperatures will continue to be above normal across Spain, Portugal and southern France with maximum temperatures reaching locally even 35-40°C in southern Iberia, with Siviglia reaching 40°C on Friday.