The penultimate day of the winter storm that has been hitting Spain since Monday and which will subside from noon this Thursday, emphasizes Rubén del Campo, spokesman for the State Weather Agency (Aemet). The cause of the improvement is the “entry of a warm front, a warmer air mass from the west” than on Tuesday and Wednesday, which was arctic, i.e. from the pole. High temperatures will rise, raising snow depths to 1,400 meters in the northern third ―Galicia, Cantabrian municipalities, northern Castilla y León, La Rioja, Navarre, northern Aragon and northern Catalonia‖. On Wednesday, the altitude in this area was only 300/400 meters, resulting in heavy snowfall. The problem is that in the same third it will continue to rain, on top of the snow, so there is a risk of thaw and flooding of the riverbeds. Little rainfall is expected in the rest of the country, but wind, cold and rough seas will persist.
The deep gust Fien that caused the worst storm triggered by another deep squall, Gérard, is now history. The cause of the wind, rain and snowfall this Thursday and Friday afternoon is a new squall, Hannelore, the eighth named after a season that has taken a run, with the baptism of three storms in just six days. He has dubbed it Météo-France and in the neighboring country, which is hardest hit, it will leave extensive and plentiful snowfall.
So this Thursday, between the last blows from Fien and with Hannelore’s relief, it continued to snow in the northern third at dawn and in the morning, although the level “significantly raised the level” and over 1,200 tons is already at 1,400 meters Afternoon, except in the Pyrenees where it will continue to snow at any altitude. It will continue to snow above 600 meters in the Balearic Islands. This increase in altitude will cause copious amounts of rain to fall in areas where it has previously snowed, particularly in the Cantabrian Sea, causing it to thaw and causing some riverbeds with a lot of water to subside. Snowfall is also expected in the central and Iberian systems.
In the rest of the country, Del Campo said the skies are more open, with cloudy patches and little rainfall. Of course it will be a very windy day again, especially on the Galician and Cantabrian coasts, where there will be waves of five meters, but not eight meters as in the previous days. The Mediterranean will also be rough, with waves of two to three meters, not four, and the Cierzo blowing heavily in the Ebro, maximum temperatures are generally and “remarkably” rising – up to 6°/8° more— in the northern third. The minimums, on the other hand, drop in excess of -10° in the interior of the peninsula, with frosts in much of the peninsula that can be severe in the Pyrenees.
On the warning map, communities with warnings for wind, rain, snow, cold, rough seas, avalanches and thaws are reduced from 15 to 13 after lifting those affecting Murcia and Castile-La Mancha. These are Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Castile and León, Catalonia, Galicia, Madrid, Navarra, the Basque Country, La Rioja, the Valencian Community and Melilla. The orange snow warnings are maintained in Navarre, Cantabria, the Basque Country and Aragón – the second tier of a scale of three. The thaw warning, yellow level, the lowest, affects Cantabria, Burgos and Navarre.
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Friday is the last day of the episode in which Del Campo points out that it will continue to rain heavily in the Cantabrian Sea and snow above 600 meters in the Pyrenees. “Light and scattered” rains are expected in other parts of the northern half and in mountainous areas of the peninsula, with an elevation of about 1,400 meters, so the thaw will continue. Temperatures are rising “noticeably” almost all over the country, especially at night, by up to 8° compared to Thursday. The frosts will therefore be limited to mountainous areas, but will be severe again in the Pyrenees, with values ranging from -8° to -10° at high altitudes.