Aemet warnings for heavy rain in Almería, Murcia and Valencia as cold air arrives

Orange warnings in the southeast

Aemet has activated orange warnings, which it describes as important danger, for parts of Almería and Murcia on Wednesday, 4 November. In Almería the alert covers the Levante almeriense, where rainfall of 30 litres per square metre in one hour is possible between 16:00 and 23:59. In Murcia the orange level applies to the Guadalentín valley, Lorca, Águilas, the Campo de Cartagena and Mazarrón, with the same hourly total forecast from 19:00 to 23:59, and storms may accompany the rain. Late in the day, rainfall could be locally very heavy along the Almería and Murcia coasts. Showers and storms are also forecast for the Strait, Ceuta, the Alborán coasts and the Balearic Islands.

Valencia, Alicante and the Canaries

La Razón reports an orange warning for the southern Valencia coast, where more than 100 litres per square metre could fall in 12 hours, with the heaviest totals expected between Gandía and Oliva. The Alicante coast is under a yellow warning for up to 20 litres in one hour or 60 litres in 12 hours. El Mundo instead places Valencia under a yellow warning for strong and persistent rain, so the level assigned to the Valencian coast differs between the two reports. Aemet's outlook for the south and southeast reads:

“Very cloudy or overcast skies are expected in the south and southeast of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands.”

The Canary Islands face unstable weather too, with cloudy skies and locally heavy showers, and RTVE's forecast mentions strong or very strong showers with thunder that may be locally persistent. The anticyclone over the British Isles also draws moist easterly winds toward the Mediterranean and the Balearics.

Cold air and frost

Cold air pushed in by the anticyclone is pulling temperatures down across much of the country. La Razón expects maximum temperatures to fall by 6 to 8 degrees, mostly in the north and centre. Aemet's yellow warnings for minimum temperatures cover Parameras de Molina in Guadalajara and Sanabria in Zamora, where readings of at least -6 degrees are flagged until 9.00. eldiario.es puts the morning frost in those areas at up to 6 degrees below zero, the first significant frosts of this autumn. La Razón describes frosts of up to -5 degrees in several interior provinces. Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha are under yellow warnings for low minimum temperatures, and El Mundo gives 26 degrees for Seville and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria against 11 for Ávila, León, Palencia, Segovia and Soria.

What comes next

The unsettled weather does not end on Wednesday. El Confidencial expects rain to persist on Thursday, 5 November, on the Mediterranean coast, where rain has already been abundant this autumn. From Friday, 6 November, the rain moves toward the northwest of the peninsula, with widespread showers forecast over the weekend of 7 and 8 November. Temperatures start to recover gradually from Friday. Winds are expected to be northerly across the peninsula, light to moderate inland, with moderate and occasionally strong easterlies from the Ampurdán to Murcia, and RTVE expects a strong northeasterly in Galicia with very strong gusts on the A Coruña coast.