José Luis Escudero:

Ever since he was just a baby, whenever there was a storm, he struggled to escape from his crib to look out the window and not miss a single detail. As a child, hand in hand with his father, with whom he shared his great hobby, he explored the sky under the rain. Years later, he became a storm chaser, a meteorology broadcaster, author of the leading blog on Malaga climatology, 'Tormentas y Rayos', and a lover of the terral wind, "even though people find it strange." Divorced for years, today his two daughters (one a school principal in the capital, the other a bus driver for EMT), his partner Genoveva, and his three grandchildren (Leila, Hugo, and Mía) are his main pillars along with meteorology. He admits that it is his passion and his life: "At first, I felt like a weirdo until I discovered the great enthusiasm that exists in Malaga."

–Do you prefer saltwater or chlorine?

–I'm totally a saltwater person. Without a doubt. Even in winter, I swim if the water is not too cold (smiles).

–Summer in Malaga or elsewhere?

–I don't like the summer in Malaga, because of the humidity. I can't stand the humidity. I love the summer in San Sebastián or Santander where the average temperatures are lower. It's not as hot and it cools down more at night. It's another world.

–What do you fear more, the cold or the heat?

–I fear the heat more, especially because of the humidity. There are many of us from Malaga who prefer the terral wind, believe it or not.

–Territorial wind? Please explain that...

–I'm referring to a terral that doesn't reach 40 degrees, of course. A mild one of 36 or 37 degrees, which is common in Malaga: the humidity usually hovers around 20%. In those cases, if the temperature is 37.5, that's the temperature you feel. What happens when there's an easterly or southwesterly wind and we reach 33 degrees? The humidity is 80% and those degrees turn into 38 and you start to sweat and sweat. At night, with the terral, even if the air is hot in the room, you don't sweat. However, on torrid nights, with the room at 80% humidity, the pillow ends up soaked. I've always been so intrigued by it that I'm finishing a book about the terral, with all its characteristics and curiosities. The terral is very much ours.

–Of the meteorological events experienced in Malaga, which one is etched in your memory?

–I have two. The first is the floods of '89. I experienced it firsthand. I was working at El Corte Inglés and, seeing the color of the sky and the lightning, I warned that a big storm was coming. I advised colleagues to move their cars from Esperanza, where you could park at that time. Those who didn't listen had their vehicles flooded. I made videos, they are uploaded to the blog, and we helped a woman trapped by the rising water near Armengual de la Mota. We threw her a rope to pull her out. I remember calling my ex-wife to pick up the girls from school, which, by the way, got flooded: they were trapped for hours. Mine were at home.

–And the second phenomenon that has impacted you the most?

–The tornado in San Andrés, in 2009. It struck me because of the havoc it caused. It was an F2, with gusts of 180 kilometers per hour, and those are big words in Malaga. I was at my partner's house. I heard a kind of blender sound and I knew what it was. I went down to the street to take pictures and saw panels of iron torn apart and other damage. It was impressive.

–Where does your interest in meteorology come from?

–I've been passionate about it forever, even when I was a baby I was attracted to it. I've always wanted to go out and get wet and watch the storm. My father used to take me to the old Levante headland to watch the storms. And my daughter, the younger one, feels the same way. I've always sought information and documented myself. I have breakfast at 6:30 AM every day and the first thing I do is look at the sky. It's instinctive now.

–When did you start the blog 'Tormentas y Rayos'?

–It was around 2008. Fefe (Fernando González, graphic editor and photographer for SUR who passed away in 2018) encouraged me to start it and write about the meteorology of Malaga. We considered many names until we chose that one.

–Since then, do you update it daily?

–Yes, almost every day. It's my main thing. It even was when I worked at El Corte Inglés, in men's clothing. Now comes the hurricane season in the Atlantic and I'm looking forward to tracking it.

–Any strange meteorological phenomenon still pending investigation?

–A tornado, F4 or F5, with gusts of 600 kilometers. That would lift a truck with a trailer off the ground. Also a type of cloud: the supercell. I haven't seen one in proper conditions and there are already some in Spain. Search it on Google, you'll love it.

–Do family and friends ask you about the weather for their vacations or weekend getaways?

–I have 1,200 contacts on my phone. Many of them write to me just for that. And many others do so through Facebook. I tell them it's all on the blog, that they need to read, but they ask anyway (laughs).

–To conclude, after the hottest June on record, can you predict what kind of summer we can expect?

–It's hard to know if we're going to have many torrid nights or not this summer. It will depend a lot on the sea water temperature, whether it's high and if the breezes at night are very gentle to raise the temperature. It's also difficult to predict whether there will be more or fewer days of terral. If there's little wind at night, torrid nights can occur.