The global increase in temperatures has not only triggered daytime thermometers. According to the records, the advance of the climate crisis is causing the nights are getting warmer in Spain. Although this phenomenon occurs throughout the year, it is in summer when, due to the high temperatures typical of this season, the heat is further enhanced and reaches extreme figures in the middle of the night.
Meteorologists use the terms tropical nights, torrid nights and infernal nights to describe various night heat scenarios. These are the Main differences between each of these categories.
The term ‘tropical night’ It is used to describe all those nights where temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius are recorded. According to an analysis by the State Meteorological Agency, in several Spanish cities the number of nights tropics has quadrupled in the last three-quarters of a century. This is due, on the one hand, to the advance of the climate crisis and global warming and, on the other hand, to anthropogenic causes such as the increase in the ‘heat island’ effect of large cities. At the moment, in cities like Barcelona, practically every summer night falls within this threshold.
The ‘torrid nights’ or ‘equatorial nights’ are, from a meteorological point of view, those where temperatures are above 25 degrees Celsius. In Barcelona, for example, before 2003 no night had been recorded with these temperatures and, since then, more than 40 have already been observed that fit this threshold.
Doctors warn that when thermometers exceed this figure there is also an increase in sleep disorders as well as cases of insomnia. In addition, increases irritability, stress and emotional discomfort in the general population, as well as an increase in psychiatric admissions in patients with previous disorders.
He ‘hell night’ concept describes those nights where temperatures exceed 30 degrees Celsius. Until a few decades ago, this phenomenon used to occur in the regions of the global south and, in general, in the warmer areas of the planet. But in recent years, nights of this type have begun to be recorded at higher latitudes, even reaching various points on the Iberian Peninsula and the Spanish archipelagos. This year several of this type have been registered in Almeria, Malaga, Melilla, Jaen as well as in various points of the Canary Islands.
Nights “more than hell”
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The term ‘hellish nights’ was, until now, the one used to describe the most extreme hot nights when the thermometers exceeded 30 degrees. “But what do we call the nights in which it does not drop below 35 degrees?”, commented a few days ago the meteorologist Rubén del Campo, from the State Meteorological Agency, when he saw how in several Canary Islands locations they were registering minimums above this threshold.
During the second week of August, in stations such as San Bartolomé Tirajana, Agüimes, Aldea de San Nicolás, San Sebastián de la Gomera, Puntagorda and Jirafe, minimum temperatures above 35 degrees were observed for two consecutive nights. For now there is no term to define these types of nights, but if their frequency increases, a new category may soon have to be coined.