Weather tracker: heat in Spain could smash April temperature record

For much of Europe, April so far has been rather cold and reasonably wet in places. However, Spain has remained very dry and very warm, retaining the subtropical air that has led to forest fires and a widespread drought. Plumes of heat from the tropics are expected to continue to affect the country throughout the coming days, threatening the April maximum temperature record.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Spain for the month is 37.4C (99.3F) in Murcia on 9 April 2011. Forecasts suggest that on 26 April temperatures will widely reach 35-38C, and Seville may even hit a maximum of 39C. For comparison, the April high in Seville stands at 35.4C. It is possible that records for the month will not only be broken next week, but smashed.

Intense storms developed across parts of central US on Wednesday with numerous tornadoes recorded, particularly across central Oklahoma. So far at least two people have been confirmed dead in Cole, just south of Oklahoma City, from a tornado that flattened buildings. The storms began as several separate systems but merged into one and led to a Fujiwhara interaction. The Fujiwhara effect is when two hurricanes are close enough to spin around a common centre, eventually merging into one storm system. A weather station in Shawnee in Oklahoma recorded a gust of 84mph (135km/h), due east of Cole. The storms across the plains also brought large hailstones, with tennis ball-sized hail reported on the I-29, due north of Kansas City.

This winter, snow across the northern plains has lingered until mid-April, with many places recording above average snowfall, but recent warmth has allowed for the start of significant snowmelt. Rapid melting over the past week has resulted in a significant rise in the amount of water draining into the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, with flood warnings across the Dakotas and Minnesota. The worst of the flooding has been experienced along the Red River in eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. However, over the coming days temperatures are expected to return to below normal, allowing for a break in the rapid melting.