Another hot day with south wind to finish things up…
Synopsis: The Pyrenees remain between a massive ridge and heatdome extending from Northern Africa over France to Germany and a quasi-stationary trough over the Celtic Sea, leading to persisting and slightly increasing winds from sector south-southwest.
Details: Weather character remains unchanged: Hot and sunny. A few clouds in the morning are possible in the western Pyrenees as well as some thin cirrus. Insolation along the remaining course-line remains un-restricted. Temperatures remain in the 35°C-range in the flats and the 0°C-isotherme over Andorra is around 4700 MASL.
Thermals:
Again the airmass allows potentially thermals with a top of over 4000 MASL in the high mountains of the Catalan Pyrenees. In the lower mountains, thermal tops of 2000 – 2300 MASL are forecasted. As always, the development of usable thermals takes a while, before 12-13:00 LT only in the high mountains above 2000 MASL a favorable gradient can establish. As so often with southerly winds, the French side sees a more complex stratification with a persisting inversion around 1500 MASL, especially in the lower valleys where the south wind doesn’t get through.
Wind:
…remains the main issue on this last day of the 2026 X-Pyr. Strong southerly winds dominate the course-line. Above 2000 MASL, the wind is already well-present in the morning, with the strongest zones (40-50 km/h) triggered by foehny downslope acceleration in the upper levels of the French valleys. The Spanish and Catalan mountains and hills remain better sheltered in the forenoon and see around 25-35 km/h at 2000 MASL during the afternoon. The exception to this is the area of the foothills around Girona/Figueres. Here, winds are accelerated and can reach 30-35 km/h at 1000 MASL and reaching gusts at the surface in the same range. In this area, winds can locally get deflected towards the west, especially along the southern foothills, while constant and strong winds form plain south persist along the mountain crest around La Jonquera.
Outlook:
Watertemperature of the Med seems with 23.5°C still rather ok, but it remains very uncertain if it will provide enough cooling after crossing the Pyrenees during this exceptional heat-wave!!!
