Aemet raises alert level to amber for extreme heat and temperatures of up to 40C in south of Spain

It has been a hot Thursday in Andalucía. The first sharp rise in temperatures of the season today triggered the mercury to almost touch 40C in provinces such as Cordoba, Jaen (both under a yellow warning) and Seville. Spain's state meteorological agency (Aemet) in fact raised the warning to amber for the Seville countryside area of the region where the warnings remained in place until 9pm.

And it is not an isolated episode. Seville will remain in check for extreme heat at least until Saturday. Aemet is extending the amber alert for two more days in this area (between 1pm and 9pm on both occasions). Tomorrow, Friday, Huelva will be added to this sweltering map (at a yellow level) and on Saturday it will be extended to Cadiz. So, for the time being, there will be five Andalusian provinces with warnings in place for high temperatures of between 37 and 40C.

The heat will remain with us until Sunday. However, the good news is that it will ease at the beginning of June. "Temperatures will remain high for the rest of the week, dropping significantly in the first days of next week, when the warm air mass now present in the lower layers of the troposphere will withdraw", according to Aemet.