He Ministry of Health has implemented this Monday June 17 a new alert system for high temperatures in Spain which seeks to minimize the potential health effects of heat during the summer. It consists of a map that divides the country into more than 180 geographical areaseach with a maximum temperature threshold that, when exceeded, increases mortality and activates a series of preventive measures.
Until now, Health used 52 provincial reference units, in addition to the two autonomous cities, to activate heat alerts. However, This year more than a hundred new meteohealth zones have been added, areas of territory that maintain a homogeneous temperature behavior and of which there may be several in a single province.
Thus, the map of studied areas rises from 52 to 182, as contemplated in the National Plan for Preventive Actions on the Effects of Excess Temperatures on Health. This plan, which the Ministry has been using for more than 20 years to evaluate the health effects of heat, It will be in effect at least until September 30.
Since last May 16, alerts at the provincial level have been active, but the Interministerial Commission in charge of implementing the National Plan for Preventive Actions on the Effects of Excess Temperatures on Health decided to delay the implementation of the new areas until this Monday. of meteohealth.
For each of these areas, and with the information provided daily by the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), the plan establishes a maximum temperature threshold that, once exceeded, activates the harmful effects of heat. and that, given the enormous geographical variability of Spain, they are not the same everywhere.
Threshold of maximum temperatures by municipalities
The plan reserves the highest limits for Andalusian capitals (ranging from 35.5 degrees in Almería and 37.2 in Málaga to 40.5 in Seville and 41.4 in Córdoba, the highest in all of Spain), Extremadura (37.2 in Cáceres and 40 in Badajoz) and Murcia (38.8).
In Castilla la Mancha, They range between 36 in Cuenca, 37.9 in Toledo and 38.1 in Ciudad Real. In Aragon, the maximum threshold is Zaragoza (38) compared to 36.7 in Teruel and 34.5 in Huesca. For its part, in CataloniaLleida has the highest value (37.9) and Barcelona the lowest (31).
Madrid It is assigned 35.6 degrees; The Rioja 34.5 and Navarre, 34.4; in Galicia There is the greatest variability, with 27.5 in A Coruña but 37.4 in Ourense. In Castilla y León, The risk threshold is 36.1 degrees in Zamora, 36.9 in Valladolid and 35.3 in Salamanca, which drops to values around 33 in the rest.
The same 33 degrees or a little more are set for Álava and Vizcaya, Las Palmas, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, and a few tenths less in Alicante (31.8) and Castellón (32.8). The lowest values are found in Cantabria (26.6) and Asturias (26.4).
Four levels of risk
For each degree that the ambient temperature exceeds these thresholds, the risk of mortality attributable to high temperatures increases between 9.1% and 10.7%, that is, for each day that there is an episode of extreme heat, the mortality It increases, on average, by 3 deaths a day.
Depending on the number of days in which these thresholds are exceeded, the plan determines four risk levels, ranging from ‘Level 0’ to ‘Level 3’, each of which includes a series of measures to coordinate all agents involved, from the different ministries and regional officials to health professionals and social services.
