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WEATHER

Storm Nelson dampens Spain’s Semana Santa celebrations

Storm Nelson has soaked parts of Spain during its famous Semana Santa celebrations, bringing heavy rain, strong winds, waves, and cancelling processions across the country.

Published: 28 March 2024 11:18 CET
Storm Nelson dampens Spain's Semana Santa celebrations
Penitents from the 'San Bernardo' brotherhood walk along the street as bystanders shelter under umbrellas in Seville. Photo: CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP/

In some parts of the country, Spain’s Semana Santa celebrations have been something of a washout this year. Storm Nelson has brought fierce winds, waves and heavy rain, cancelling many Easter processions.

Winds of up to 140km/hr in parts of north western Spain left several people injured, and even caused some flights to be redirected or cancelled.

READ ALSO: Strike action at Spanish airports set to disrupt Easter travel

As such, Spain’s state meteorological Aemet has implemented severe weather warnings in many parts of the country.

There are serious orange-level warnings in the north west of the country, particularly on the Galician and Asturian coast, and yellow-level warnings across large swathes of northern Spain, as well as in the south-west and south-east, particularly on the Mediterranean coast.

You can find a full breakdown of the weather alerts on the Aemet website here.

Sadly, the weather doesn’t look as though it will improve over the Easter weekend. Storm Nelson is not directly above Spain, but weather fronts connected to it will sweep across the peninsula over the next few days.

On Maundy Thursday, a cold front will remain stationary over Spain, spreading across most of the country from southwest to northeast. Rain will be particularly heavy in the southwest and west of the country, notably in cities famous for Semana Santa processions such as Seville and Málaga.

Rainfall could exceed 50-60 mm in areas of Huelva, Seville, Badajoz, Córdoba and Ciudad Real, according to El Tiempo. Strong winds will continue throughout the day.

In parts of Castilla y León, Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha, rainfall will be weaker but could still amount to more than 10mm in large areas.

Good Friday is also forecast to be another wet day in many parts of the country. Waves could exceed 5 metres in areas of the Atlantic, the Bay of Biscay and also in the Mediterranean, especially around the Balearic Islands. Friday could also see strong gusts, especially in the early hours of the morning.

Saturday will be another unstable day, with heavy rain forecast in the west and along the Atlantic coast. Aemet forecasts show storms and even potentially lightning over the weekend that will begin to ease in the early hours of Easter Monday. Initial forecasts predict the rains could finally cease by Monday evening.

Aemet gave a pretty succinct forecast on its Twitter/X account yesterday: “Storm Nelson will leave rain, snowfall and strong winds during the next few days.”

As is clear from the Aemet graphic below, Spain is set for several days of heavy rain and wind over the Easter weekend.

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WEATHER

‘Like summer’: Heat records for April already broken across Spain

Spain has had a scorcher of an April so far with heat records broken across the country, summery temperatures in the north, and the mercury up to 16C higher than normal in some parts.

Published: 15 April 2024 11:52 CEST
'Like summer': Heat records for April already broken across Spain

We may only be midway through April but Spain has already seen summer-like temperatures in many parts of the country, with record breaking temperatures and heat well above normal values for the time of year.

So far there have been 60 temperature records in April with more than 15 days of the month still to go.

It has been such a warm spring so far that the Spanish press have dubbed it primaverano – a portmanteau of spring (primavera) and summer (verano) in Spanish.

For their part, national weather agency Aemet have described the heat in the Canaries as that of “the middle of summer”. 

Records for both minimum and maximum highs have been broken one after another since the beginning of the month. The record breaking temperatures have been largely in the north, in particular around the Cantabrian Sea, though temperatures have topped 30C in parts of the south.

Temperatures reached 30C at 65 weather stations run by Aemet.

Bilbao, for example, recorded a minimum temperature of 20.1C at its airport, easily beating the previous April record of 17.8C all the way back in April 1949. San Sebastián airport station also beat its previous April record by almost 3C. 

Vigo and Ourense in the northwestern Galicia region and Vitoria in the Basque Country also beat heat records for April with temperatures above 30C.

The Fabra Observatory in Barcelona recorded 29.1C, smashing the previous record (recorded last year in 2023) by 1.6 degrees.

Meteorologist Alfons Puertas posted the record breaking news in a message on Twitter/X, stating: “ATTENTION! A few minutes ago #obsFabra just surpassed the maximum temperature record for April for the entire 1914-2024 series!! 29.1C (provisional) exceeds last year’s record by +1.6C!”

Record temperatures were also recorded in other northern regions such as Asturias and Cantabria.

In the rest of the country, record high minimum temperatures were recorded in provincial capitals including Salamanca, Guadalajara and Teruel.

But the heatwave hasn’t just been felt on the Spanish mainland. On the Canary Islands, April heat records were set in most of the islands, especially in Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Tenerife and La Gomera.

The weather station at Tenerife South Airport recorded a staggering 38.3C April temperature.

Aemet posted on Twitter/X just how abnormal these April temperatures have been: “On Sunday 14th, temperatures were once again very high for the season in most of the country: between 7-15C above normal.”

Aemet also states that the record maximum highs around the country have been “among the 5 percent of the warmest temperatures recorded at this time of year,” adding that the abnormally warm Spring has brought summer temperatures to northern Spain.

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