By Cindy Fernández
Like November, December has every chance of becoming a month with multiple temperature records and historic heat waves.
Since Sunday, temperatures have been recorded that exceed, and by far, 40 °C in dozens of cities. And the values continue to rise.
On Wednesday, December 7, northern Argentina experienced one of the most suffocating days on record, and for that day, the city of Rivadavia (Salta) was the city with the highest temperature in the world.
It reached an astonishing 46°C. This value equals the previous record for the month of December for that location, which was set on December 11, 2010.
During the southern summer, the warmest area on the planet is usually Australia, where with its vast desert and its great continental extension, with a huge portion of land far from oceanic areas, the conditions are ideal to exceed 40 °C by far, even without being in a heat wave situation. But yesterday they were left with a second place obtained by the city of Jervois that reached an unenviable 44.9 °C.
Other cities that registered extreme temperature values were: Santiago del Estero with 44.7 °C, which was ranked third among the warmest cities in the world, Las Lomitas (Formosa) with 44.5 °C, Orán (Salta ) with 43.9 °C, Tartagal (Salta) with 43 °C and La Rioja with 42.8 °C.
It should be noted that the data from Tartagal exceeded the previous maximum temperature record for December of 42.6 °C, recorded on December 10, 1970.
THE MINIMUM TEMPERATURES ARE NOT FAR BEHIND
The maximum temperatures are not the only remarkable ones. Some cities had one of the warmest nights in years. Like Las Lomitas, where the thermometer values only dropped to 29.5 °C at dawn, or in Rivadavia, which registered a minimum temperature of 28.5 °C.
Corrientes also stands out with 27.6 °C, Ceres with 27.5 °C, Reconquista with 27.2 °C and San Juan with 27.2 °C. This last city also broke the record for the highest minimum temperature for December, surpassing the previous value of 27.0 °C from 12/24/2013
HEAT WAVE AND EXTREME TEMPERATURE ALERTS
With the temperature values recorded in recent days, the National Meteorological Service has already declared a heat wave in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and issued a red level alert for extreme temperatures for the metropolitan area and for some neighboring districts.
This alert level indicates that the temperatures are very dangerous as they have a high to extreme effect on people’s health. In addition, part of the north of San Luis and the south of La Rioja are also under alert of the same level.
On the other hand, the city of La Plata, Nueve de Julio in the province of Buenos Aires, the south of the Litoral, part of Mendoza, San Luis, Córdoba, San Juan, La Rioja, Catamarca, Jujuy, Corrientes and Misiones remain on alert orange level. While much of the rest of the north and center of the country has yellow level alerts for extreme temperatures.
The forecasts are not very encouraging at the moment, since it is expected that at least until the weekend, high temperatures will continue in a large part of the national territory.
Only some specific sectors in the center and north of the country experienced a temporary drop as a result of a specific breeze or storm. So don’t forget to check all the details of your city’s forecast at www.meteored.com.ar.
With information from Meteored