The first heat wave of the 2024 season is already behind us.
But its impact left
"extraordinary data"
in the records of the Meteorological Service.
What made it so notable?
The event stood out for its exceptional duration.
There were
23 consecutive days of intense heat, from January 21 to February 12.
"But that's not all. Its geographical scope was astonishing
: it affected all the provinces at some point during that period
," they describe from the SMN, in a thread published in X.
So, this heat wave was
"extreme" and "extensive",
two adjectives that separate it from the typical, usual, heat waves of each summer.
But, once again, why was it different?
"The strange thing is to have had a heat wave at the end of January during a strong phenomenon like El Niño,"
SMN meteorologist José Luis Stella had explained to
Clarín .
The oppressive temperatures - which in the City and the GBA, for example, exceeded °39 - sustained and recorded in a large part of the national territory, took place because, precisely, the El Niño signal (the effect of its presence, such as intense rains) was inhibited by the
atmospheric blockage (anticyclone) in the Atlantic
, which prevented the passage of a cold front that could replace the mass of warm, almost tropical air.
The heat wave of January and February lasted 23 days almost without respite.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
"Not even Patagonia was spared.
All regions felt the heat.
80 meteorological stations recorded a heat wave,"
the organization adds.
As the days passed, the heat intensified and spread throughout the Argentine territory.
But the wave had
two peaks of impact: between January 31 and February 3, and from February 5 to 7.
The report revealed that during those peaks, more than 55 weather stations across the country detected the heat wave simultaneously.
Within this extended period, several locations surpassed their record for highest daily maximum temperature, some for January and others for February.
From 37° to 43.8°.
The record was taken by
San Martín, in Mendoza,
which endured the heat wave for 12 days in a row.
The maximum in that department was 41.3°.
During last week's deluge, more than half as much water fell in some areas of the City as the average for all of February.
Photo: Guillermo Rodriguez Adami
In the City, on February 6 the thermal exceeded 40 degrees in another oppressive day within the series.
At 2 p.m. that day
it climbed to 42.8°.
No matter how much stress is felt in the body, the parameters to define a heat wave depend on conditions that have not changed with climate change.
To label the extreme heat in the City in this way, the Atmospheric Sciences defined that
the minimum temperatures must exceed 22° and the maximum temperatures must exceed 32.3°
, and do so for three days in a row.
Heat waves are normal in the summer.
Every year there is.
And the trend is that on average it is normal in terms of temperatures," Fernández remarks. He does this in comparison to the anomalous March of 2023, which was breaking records during its days of historic heat.
Already in the present, now in the future: what will be "normal", in terms of heat, in the future of the summer season in the metropolitan area and in the rest of the country?
For February, minimum temperatures of 19°C and maximum temperatures of 29°C are expected.
Precipitation?
an average of 130 mm during the month.
Last week's deluge, with 75 mm recorded, for example, at the Aeroparque meteorological station, contributed much of the expected rainfall.
However, and according to what appears for the next six days in the Meteorological Service forecast, heat with minimums of 23 and 24 degrees is expected for next Wednesday and Thursday, and rains only appear with
low probabilities during the night. Sunday.
For later, according to its quarterly report for
February, March and April
, the National Meteorological Service (SMN) expects
gentler weather for the City and the GBA,
but less benevolent in the rest of the country, which will continue to be overwhelmed.
"The most notable thing is that the end of summer and beginning of autumn are expected to have
normal to above normal temperatures in much of the country, except in Buenos Aires and La Pampa
, which will have normal temperatures," they said from the organization. .
S.C.