# Extreme night- time temperatures



## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

Last night was the hottest night-time temperature I have ever experienced in Spain. I went to bed at about midnight and it was around 29. At 2.00 am I woke to a strong wind which was blowing through the flat. At first I ignored it and was dozing off when a blast of hot air swept in through the window. I got up and went to the kitchen and suddenly it felt like I had left the oven on. Then I noticed that the heat was coming through the window in the patio de luz. It was extraordinary, almost as though there was a fire. On my balcony the electronic farmacia sign said 35. I went back in and closed all the windows. An hour later the wind abatted but the temp was now saying 37!!!. At about 6.00 am it was down to saying 27 ( which is what it normally reads at this time) How was it for a anyone else? I really hope this is not going to become a common activity!!


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## tebo53 (Sep 18, 2014)

kaipa said:


> Last night was the hottest night-time temperature I have ever experienced in Spain. I went to bed at about midnight and it was around 29. At 2.00 am I woke to a strong wind which was blowing through the flat. At first I ignored it and was dozing off when a blast of hot air swept in through the window. I got up and went to the kitchen and suddenly it felt like I had left the oven on. Then I noticed that the heat was coming through the window in the patio de luz. It was extraordinary, almost as though there was a fire. On my balcony the electronic farmacia sign said 35. I went back in and closed all the windows. An hour later the wind abatted but the temp was now saying 37!!!. At about 6.00 am it was down to saying 27 ( which is what it normally reads at this time) How was it for a anyone else? I really hope this is not going to become a common activity!!


Here in Benidorm we have been getting temperatures up to 31 degrees overnight, no breeze and high humidity, its been stifling. Its still around 27 degrees at 7.30 in the morning. Today (Sat at 2.20pm) it is 33 degrees but expecting up to 40 degrees. Humidity at this time is good though at 47.

Steve


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## Barriej (Jul 23, 2012)

kaipa said:


> Last night was the hottest night-time temperature I have ever experienced in Spain. I went to bed at about midnight and it was around 29. At 2.00 am I woke to a strong wind which was blowing through the flat. At first I ignored it and was dozing off when a blast of hot air swept in through the window. I got up and went to the kitchen and suddenly it felt like I had left the oven on. Then I noticed that the heat was coming through the window in the patio de luz. It was extraordinary, almost as though there was a fire. On my balcony the electronic farmacia sign said 35. I went back in and closed all the windows. An hour later the wind abatted but the temp was now saying 37!!!. At about 6.00 am it was down to saying 27 ( which is what it normally reads at this time) How was it for a anyone else? I really hope this is not going to become a common activity!!


Same here in the mountains slightly North of Benidorm, its been 29c plus most nights with only a slight breeze early in the morning before sunrise.
We leave all the windows open and the terrace door this time of year, but had to drop the shutters last night as it was blowing a gale, which was hot. We get this a lot during the day depending on the direction of the wind anyway, as we have mountains on three sides. 
Was up at 7.30 and it was 34 on the balcony. My weather station reckons its 36c inside and humidity is 34% right now.

Never mind only a month or so to go until the temp drops to the mid 20's and its the second spring here....


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## Samuel.tri (6 mo ago)

Alicante región was so hot and humid for us that we escaped to northern Europe July 1. We're dreading our return Aug 20.


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## Retired to Basque country (Dec 13, 2021)

Samuel.tri said:


> Alicante región was so hot and humid for us that we escaped to northern Europe July 1. We're dreading our return Aug 20.


Just goes to show that nowhere is perfect.


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## olivefarmer (Oct 16, 2012)

Air quality and pollution is also pretty bad over large swathes of Spain.


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

Así se produce un reventón cálido como el de Cullera: tormentas, calor, atmósfera muy seca y fuertes rachas de viento


La Agencia Estatal de Meteorología señala que estos fenómenos son muy difíciles de predecir, pero apunta a que este sábado se mantienen en el Mediterráneo las condiciones propicias para que se produzcan




elpais.com





Found this in El Pais. Clearly this was what happened last night along the coast of Alicante and Valencia. They say that its possible it might occur tonight again- apparently they are hard to predict but the conditions are perfect for them due to the surrounding storms.


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

kaipa said:


> Last night was the hottest night-time temperature I have ever experienced in Spain. I went to bed at about midnight and it was around 29. At 2.00 am I woke to a strong wind which was blowing through the flat. At first I ignored it and was dozing off when a blast of hot air swept in through the window. I got up and went to the kitchen and suddenly it felt like I had left the oven on. Then I noticed that the heat was coming through the window in the patio de luz. It was extraordinary, almost as though there was a fire. On my balcony the electronic farmacia sign said 35. I went back in and closed all the windows. An hour later the wind abatted but the temp was now saying 37!!!. At about 6.00 am it was down to saying 27 ( which is what it normally reads at this time) How was it for a anyone else? I really hope this is not going to become a common activity!!


Alicante-Elche airport reported a record temperature of 40.5 Celsius at 3 a.m. Saturday!


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

One of several forest fires caused by lightning last night. Declarado un incendio en la Vall d'Ebo que obliga a la intervención de efectivos del Gobierno

There was thunder, lightning - but no rain


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

Fires near Albacete today. There was also one in Guardamar.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

So how does everyone stay cool? 

I use a fan, but turn it off before I go to sleep - I sleep better that way, without a sheet, even when the overnight low was about 28º last night. My daughter has a fan on all night, but then needs a sheet!

If you have aircon, do you leave it on all night & b++++r the bills? How low do you set the temp?


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

We have aircon (set to 28C) but turn it off when we go to bed. The ceiling fan in the bedroom stays on all night, I don't need a sheet over me. 

Unusually the aircon has been on for a couple of hours today already as it's one of the hottest days we've had (forecast said 39 but it may go higher) and will stay on for the rest of the day. I think we missed one hot spell when we were on holiday in June and it hasn't been really bad since then, we have been lucky to have missed the extremely hot temperatures so much of Spain has been experiencing for weeks. Our temperatures have been 32-34 degrees most days with humidity not too bad. 

Un día más de ola de calor tórrido con hasta 43 grados, salvo el oasis de Málaga (canalsur.es)

I've never experienced the kind of sudden peak in temperature during the night that Kaipa described, but I remember something similar happening during the day once, several years ago. In the morning the temperature wasn't too bad, but in the early afternoon it shot up very quickly to 42C then a couple of hours later went back down again by about 10 degrees.


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

xabiaxica said:


> So how does everyone stay cool?
> 
> I use a fan, but turn it off before I go to sleep - I sleep better that way, without a sheet, even when the overnight low was about 28º last night. My daughter has a fan on all night, but then needs a sheet!
> 
> If you have aircon, do you leave it on all night & b++++r the bills? How low do you set the temp?


I don't have AC ( can't afford it)and basically I sleep on the balcony some nights or the sofa. This has been the hottest summer I have experienced in Spain and Im just glad I dont work in the summer


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

xabiaxica said:


> So how does everyone stay cool?
> 
> I use a fan, but turn it off before I go to sleep - I sleep better that way, without a sheet, even when the overnight low was about 28º last night. My daughter has a fan on all night, but then needs a sheet!
> 
> If you have aircon, do you leave it on all night & b++++r the bills? How low do you set the temp?


I live in Seville so living without A/C is not an option. (Daytime temps are regularly 40º+.) We run the A/C downstairs starting in mid-morning (set at 26º) and usually turn it off an hour or two before the sun is goes down. At some point after that it usually gets to the point where it's cooler out than in, and the windows get opened. We sleep with a fan blowing on us all summer, sometimes with and sometimes without a sheet. We do have A/C installed in the bedrooms, but they only get used when nighttime temperatures are extreme. Normally that's 3-5 nights a summer. But this year has been off the charts hot and I've lost count of the times we've had them running at night (at 26º). Yes, €€€€€€. But we have 9 solar panels so our daytime electricity is free and we only have to pay for what we use at night. If summers continue to be this hot we'll have to look into getting batteries for our solar panels so we can cover our nighttime electricity use too.


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## tebo53 (Sep 18, 2014)

xabiaxica said:


> So how does everyone stay cool?
> 
> I use a fan, but turn it off before I go to sleep - I sleep better that way, without a sheet, even when the overnight low was about 28º last night. My daughter has a fan on all night, but then needs a sheet!
> 
> If you have aircon, do you leave it on all night & b++++r the bills? How low do you set the temp?


We don't have aircon but we have fans on all day in the lounge, one big oscillating fan and 2 x smaller fans pointed directly at us. We also use "cool scarves" that, when wet stay cold!!



https://www.amazon.es/Cooling-Towel-Instant-Ice-Cold-Cool-Scarf-Headband-110CMx32CM



Then when it's still to warm we put water bottles (the "hot" water type you use in bed in winter) in the fridge for an hour and put on the back of our necks......lovely 😁

In the bedroom there is 2 small fans we keep on all night. No sheets required....

Steve


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

tebo53 said:


> We don't have aircon but we have fans on all day in the lounge, one big oscillating fan and 2 x smaller fans pointed directly at us. We also use "cool scarves" that, when wet stay cold!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Like the idea of the cold water bottles!!! Must give it a go


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## Barriej (Jul 23, 2012)

xabiaxica said:


> So how does everyone stay cool?
> 
> I use a fan, but turn it off before I go to sleep - I sleep better that way, without a sheet, even when the overnight low was about 28º last night. My daughter has a fan on all night, but then needs a sheet!
> 
> If you have aircon, do you leave it on all night & b++++r the bills? How low do you set the temp?


We have A/C in the main room and two bedrooms, the wife puts the bedroom one on an hour or so before she goes to bed and closes the window and the door to drop the temp as far as she can. 
I go after a couple of hours when the room is back to a normal temp for me. 
I wont have the A/C on at night (but I have a quilt cover over me anyway most nights).
If she wants to run the fan at night I move to the other bedroom.

There is a ceiling fan in the dining area part of the main room and this is on slow most of the time.
I think we have run the A/C units twice this year, once when I serviced them (well cleaned and changed the filters etc) and once a month or so ago to see if they were still able to remove the heat from the room effectively.

I don't think the temp is that bad really, its slightly uncomfortable but isn't this one of the reasons we all moved here???

I have had trouble keeping the fish tank temp low as its now around 4 degrees hotter than it should be (bottles of treated water in the fridge for a day, drain 1/4 of the tank and refill) but I can't get the temp down to the 24c it needs to be at so the plants are dying.


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## timwip (Feb 27, 2017)

Here in Asturias, I don't know anyone that has AC. We are on the right side of global warming!


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## number9 (Dec 4, 2021)

Aircon and ceiling fans for around a month or two now. Downstairs unit during the day, then upstairs during the night. The bills aren't that high 90 odd Euro last month for electricity, though our mains gas has doubled. It's still a lot less than we feared given current volatility.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

timwip said:


> Here in Asturias, I don't know anyone that has AC. We are on the right side of global warming!


Even parts of Asturias hit 40º this year and that's not good news


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Barriej said:


> I don't think the temp is that bad really, its slightly uncomfortable but isn't this one of the reasons we all moved here???


I think it's been unbearable and no, it's definitely not one of the reasons I moved here!


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

xabiaxica said:


> So how does everyone stay cool?
> 
> I use a fan, but turn it off before I go to sleep - I sleep better that way, without a sheet, even when the overnight low was about 28º last night. My daughter has a fan on all night, but then needs a sheet!
> 
> If you have aircon, do you leave it on all night & b++++r the bills? How low do you set the temp?


Night time temperatures here in the southwest rarely exceed 25ºC but the fabric of the building releases heat at night, like a storage heater. We have the air con on at 25º when we go to bed and if I wake up in the early hours I usually turn it off. I wear a very thin nightshirt because I don't like the cold air on my skin (I hate fans!), but it's much more comfortable than waking up in a pool of sweat.


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I think it's been unbearable and no, it's definitely not one of the reasons I moved here!


I totally agree. Its unbearable and the worst I have know for over 20 years. I have no idea how people don't feel it effects their daily life. Surely you don't go out in it unless necessary?


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

We moved to the coast in September last year after 13 years living inland at 530 metres above sea level. Winter temperatures were usually around 5c or 6c cooler than the coast and summer temperatures were much higher. July and August daily temperatures used to regularly be around 35c to 38c and often topped 40c. The highest officially recorded temperature we experienced was 44.2c. I have to say, though, that living 500 metres from the beach has been an eye-opener as the higher humidity can make the “feels like” factor (sensación térmica) seem surprisingly more uncomfortable than inland and the night temperatures don’t appear to drop so much (probably not helped by the fact that we’re now surrounded by heat-absorbing concrete instead of open land). We are using the aircon far more this summer than we ever did in our mountain home (although our Spanish neighbours tell us that this is an exceptionally hot summer). As a matter of interest I have just looked at my weather app and it says the current temperature here on the coast is 31c (feels like 41c). At our previous home, an hour’s drive inland, it is currently 35c (feels like 36c).


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