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WEATHER

WATCH: Madrid Metro flooded as heavy rain in Spain lingers

Heavy rain and flooding caused by Storm Efraín have affected different parts of Spain in recent days. The downpours have also swept through Spain's capital, flooding streets and numerous Madrid Metro stations.

Published: 15 December 2022 13:14 CET
madrid metro flood rain 2022
Madrid residents have filmed hundreds of videos showing how heavy rain has flooded numerous metro stations across the city: Screenshots: Twitter

The torrential rains affecting large parts of Spain this week have reached Madrid and flooded its metro system, causing the closure of several lines.

Though Spain may not have had the snowfall that much of northern Europe currently has, central and southern areas of the country have experienced heavy rains, very strong winds and flooding.

The arrival of Storm Efraín has brought adverse weather to 35 provinces that have been on alert. In some parts of the country, it hasn’t stopped raining for over a week.

That’s been the case in Madrid, where heavy rain on Tuesday and Wednesday has seen Spanish social media fill up with images and videos of the capital’s metro system completely flooded by the heavy rainfall.

The steps of Quevedo station, in Madrid’s Trafalgar neighbourhood, were like a river on Wednesday night with a constant stream of rainwater rushing into the station.

The Banco de España station, close to the famous Paseo del Prado in central Madrid, has been completely flooded and is closed.

Emergency services across the Madrid region responded to 323 incidents related to flooding including the metro stations, disrupted traffic, fallen trees and damage to homes and buildings. 

One Madrileño saw the funny side of things however, joking that ‘they say Madrid doesn’t have a beach’, and adding ‘Point of View: You forgot your bikini’.

Footage shared on Twitter also shows the Puerta del Sol station inundated with rainwater, described as a ‘wasteland’.

The flooding has caused partial or full closures on Madrid Metro lines 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 11.

Commuters who still tried to use the metro have been faced with rainwater working its way all the way down to the platform, and even leaking into the train carriages, as seen here.

More footage shared online shows that many Madrid streets have also been flooded, with some tunnels and roads being completely blocked off for cars, causing traffic jams in the process.

Opposition party Más Madrid has compiled a video with all the most eye-catching footage of the floods in order to criticise right-wing city officials for not having the right drainage installed across the city to avoid Madrid grinding to a halt whenever there is heavy rain or snow.

But even in rural areas of the Madrid region where tarmac and drainage can’t be blamed for the flooding, stair rods of rain came down on Wednesday, as in La Pedriza area of the Guadarrama mountain range where Madrid’s Manzanares river runs through.

According to Spain’s Aemet weather agency, it will continue raining on Thursday and Friday in Madrid, with some respite over the weekend but more rain forecast for next week.

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WEATHER

Will this summer in Spain be as hot as the previous two?

2023 was the world’s hottest summer on record, with many countries including Spain experiencing scorching temperatures. What are meteorologists forecasting for summer 2024?

Published: 16 May 2024 11:05 CEST
Updated: 18 May 2024 07:44 CEST
Will this summer in Spain be as hot as the previous two?

2023 was in fact the second-hottest summer Spain had ever experienced – the hottest being just one year earlier in 2022.

During that year, 11,300 people died in Spain alone due to the abnormally high temperatures, marine life perished in the warming seas and even train tracks warped and became deformed.

All eyes are looking toward this summer to see what will happen and if it will be as roasting as the previous two. 

READ ALSO:

According to the climate service Copernicus-EU, above-normal temperatures are predicted across southern Europe this summer.

And in Spain, there is a 50-70 percent chance that this summer will be one of the hottest 20 percent on record, and it will properly begin in June.

According to Spain’s State Meteorological Agency AEMET, we have already seen an abnormal rise this May.

Its quarterly prediction, which will take us up to the end of July (typically the hottest part of the summer here in Spain), states that it will almost certainly be warmer than usual on the Mediterranean side of the country, as well as the Balearic and Canary Islands.

Copernicus agrees with these predictions and has indicated that it’s very likely to be hotter than normal in certain areas of the country. It particularly singled out the Valencia region, Murcia (except the south), northern Almería and Granada, Ibiza and Formentera and the western Canary Islands.

It’s getting more and more difficult to know exactly what ‘above normal’ temperatures are, considering what Spain has experienced the last few years, but the reference period that many experts are basing their predictions on is from 1991-2020.

When it comes to rainfall, Copernicus has forecast that the “most likely scenario is a summer with less rain” than usual.

AEMET agreed with the prediction, stating on its X account that “most likely rainfall will be less throughout the country than what is already normally scarce in the summer season”.

This is bad news for many parts of Spain, such as Catalonia, Andalusia and the Canary Islands, which have already been experiencing an ongoing drought over the past two years.

Luckily, spring rains have managed to fill reservoirs just enough to see us through the summer at this point, but more rain will definitely be needed come autumn.

READ ALSO: Will drought restrictions affect summer holidays in Spain?

While scientists agree the sizzling temperatures experienced over the past few summers are down to climate change, last year in 2023, the cyclical phenomenon known as El Niño also had a part to play in global weather patterns.

When the seas become cooler on average and it has a cooling effect on the planet, this is partly down to the effect of La Niña.

This year is supposed to be dominated by La Niña and according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US, La Niña has a 49 percent chance of developing between June and August and a 69 percent chance between July and September.

But this doesn’t necessarily mean that this summer will be cooler than last year.

As of May 16th 2024, we’re undergoing a neutral period known as El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

Despite the global cooling effect of La Niña in 2022, it was still the planet’s sixth hottest year and the hottest in Spain ever recorded.

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