New episode of stifling heat set to hit south of Spain with temperatures close to 40C

Enjoy the slight break from the heat today because it won't last much longer. High temperatures will return to the Andalucía region on Wednesday, with four provinces on extreme heat alert. In addition, the Levante will put Cadiz in check tomorrow, with a warning for strong gusts of wind and coastal phenomena. It will be the second hot spell - after the six weather warnings in force on Monday - in the last week of July, which will say goodbye with the mercury soaring above 39C. The provinces affected on this occasion will be Cordoba, Seville, Huelva and Jaén. At the moment, Spain's state meteorological agency (Aemet) will maintain the yellow level alert in these areas for two days: Wednesday and Thursday between 1pm and 9pm.

During Wednesday, the skies in the region will remain partly cloudy, "with intervals of low clouds on the Mediterranean slope and cloudiness of diurnal evolution in the mountains, without ruling out occasional showers in the eastern interior", according to the state agency. As well as the rise in temperatures the wind will play a role, which will blow with strong gusts on the Almeria coast and with "occasionally very strong" gusts of Levante in the Strait of Gibraltar. Aemet has activated a yellow warning in this area of Cadiz province for gusts of 80 kilometres per hour and coastal phenomena with "easterly winds of 50 to 61 km/h (force 7) in the Strait, around Tarifa and to the west of Tarifa, and offshore to the south of Trafalgar".

The minimum temperatures, meanwhile, will remain very high. Aemet forecasts that thermometers will not fall below 20C throughout the region, except in Granada (where nights will be cooler with temperatures of 16 degrees). In Almeria and Cadiz provinces, the mercury will remain above 23-24C