The heat wave that hit the southern part of Spain last week is the first in history to get a name – it’s called Zoe.
Naming is common for individual storms and tornadoes, however, this was not the case for heat waves.
As they become more and more frequent and intense, it is expected that this natural phenomenon will get a name.
Last month, a new pilot program for naming and ranking heat waves was officially launched as is usually done for hurricanes, so only the strongest heat waves will be named and ranked into three categories, Spanish media reports.
The first to be named, Zoe, hit Seville and the entire region of Andalusia the most with temperatures above 43 degrees Celsius, while night temperatures reached up to 27 degrees.
Given that it was agreed that the naming of the heat waves would go in reverse alphabetical order, it was also agreed that the names of the next ones would be Jago, Ksenia, Wenceslas and Vega.