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STORM

Storm Gloria: 12 dead and four missing as Spain counts the cost of devastation

A violent storm which wrought havoc across huge swathes of Spain's eastern and southern coastline this week claimed 12 lives and left four others missing, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Friday, blaming climate change for the extreme weather.

Published: 24 January 2020 17:12 CET
Storm Gloria: 12 dead and four missing as Spain counts the cost of devastation
The storm destroyed a bridge in Malgrat de Mar, near Girona. Photo: AFP

While visiting a trade fair in Madrid, the Socialist premier expressed his “solidarity with the families of the 12 people who died” and said the government would spare no effort to locate the four missing “as soon as possible”.   

Local authorities had previously reported 11 storm-related deaths since Sunday, when Storm Gloria hit the region bringing strong winds, torrential rains and heavy snow, battering Spain's southern and eastern flanks before moving north.   

Gale-force winds and huge waves of up to 14.8 metres (49 feet) high smashed into seafront towns, with dramatic images showing massive flooding that damaged shops, houses and restaurants.

A storm surge swept three kilometres (two miles) inland up the Ebro river delta south of Barcelona, Sanchez said.

“In some places, more rain fell in a single day than is expected in the entire year,” he added.   

“This is the seventh major storm which we have experienced since the start of the storm season,” Sanchez said, describing them as “more and more destructive” and noting that Spain was “especially exposed” to the effects of climate change.   

His new government on Tuesday declared a “climate emergency” and pledged to unveil a draft bill on transitioning to renewable energy within its first 100 days in office.


Photo: AFP

Barcelona city hall on Friday said the storm has caused damage worth €12.5 million ($13.8 million) in Spain's second-largest city in its first estimate of the cost of the bad weather.   

The city's nine beaches lost an average of 30 percent of their sand due to waves of up to six metres, it said.

The storm caused losses worth €62.6 million to the agriculture sector in the eastern Valencia region alone, according to the ASAJA union of young farmers.   

Valencia is Spain's largest producer of oranges, artichokes, pomegranates, plums and other crops.

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WEATHER

Norway to get a taste of summer with 20C days this week

Summer is finally here! Or least it is if you live in southern Norway, where a warm front coming up from Europe will bring t-shirt temperatures of 20C by Thursday, according to forecasts.

Published: 30 April 2024 08:42 CEST
Norway to get a taste of summer with 20C days this week

Warm air from southern Europe will combine with a high pressure zone which will bring clear skies and sunshine, with summery weather coming towards the end of the week, Norway’s national weather forecaster Yr has reported. 

“Thursday and Friday especially will be nice,” Ingrid Villa, a meteorologist at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, told the public broadcaster NRK. “Then we will probably get temperatures of over 20 degrees Celsius in some places.” 

Patches of 20C warmth are expected both in western Norway around Bergen and in Western Norway around Oslo, with the area around Tromsø expected to have slightly cooler weather, although Villa said that “it will absolutely be something like summer there too”. 

The warm sunny weather is, however, expected to pass northern Norway by, with grey overcast skies expected for much of this week. 

But if you think summer has come to Norway to stay, you risk disappointment as much cooler temperatures are expected next week.  

“There’s nothing unusual in getting an early taste of summer in April and the start of May, and then we can quickly go back to cooler more spring-like weather,” Villa said. 

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