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WEATHER

LATEST: Four killed in Spain as Storm Nelson hits

Four people died after falling into the sea in northern Spain as strong winds and seven-metre-high waves hit ahead of Storm Nelson, emergency services said Thursday.

Published: 28 March 2024 16:59 CET
Updated: 29 March 2024 09:42 CET
LATEST: Four killed in Spain as Storm Nelson hits
People observe waves crashing in the city of San Sebastian in 2022. Photo: ANDER GILLENEA/AFP.

“Two people died after falling into the sea at Muros del Nalon and Cudillero,” the emergency services from the northwestern region of Asturias said.

Firefighters used a helicopter to recover “the lifeless body of a man” in Muros del Nalon after being alerted that a person had fallen into the sea. The body of a woman was also recovered in Cudillero.

In the northeastern Catalonia region, a 32-year-old German man entered the sea to try and save a 16-year-old Moroccan boy who had fallen into the water off Tarragona beach, but both drowned, the Civil Guard told AFP.

Spain’s meteorological agency, AEMET, issued an orange warning for dangerous rough seas on Thursday, citing waves of six to seven metres.

AEMET also warned that Storm Nelson, currently over Britain, would bring turbulent weather to the Iberian Peninsula until the end of March.

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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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