Joshua Parfitt
THE Valencian Community is expecting to see its temperature record broken today as the whole region is put on hot weather alert.
Manises, near Valencia city, recorded a searing 43,6 degrees in July of 1986.
But today the town of Xativa is expected to hit 44 degrees as the whole autonomous region will experience another heatwave lasting until tomorrow.
The coastal regions in the province of Valencia have been put on a red weather warning for ‘extreme risk’, according to Spain’s Met Office AEMET.
The whole of Alicante is on ‘important risk’, with Orihuela expected to hit 42 degrees, Villena 40.7 degrees and Elche 39.8 degrees.
The Valencian Ministry of Health yesterday raised the health alert to red level (extreme risk) in 262 municipalities.
The heat is caused by a storm in the Atlantic, pushing a subtropical mass of air through the peninsula, from west to east.
“When this air reaches the Valencian Commnity, it will be dry and overheated,” the head of Climatology in the Valencian delegation of AEMET, José Ángel Núñez, told Las Provincias.
The Directorate General of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Valencian Ministry of Interior has recommended the population limit exposure to the sun, stay in a well ventilated place, eat light meals rich in water and mineral salts – such as fruits and vegetables – and frequently drink water.
The Emergency Service 112 has also extended an extreme risk of forest fire alert to the nearly entire Community.
The Directorate General of Civil Protection has urged the population to avoid throwing cigarettes, garbage and, especially, glass bottles.
