Huge swathes of eastern Spain were thrown into chaos yesterday after torrential downpours interrupted a sweltering heatwave in key tourist hotspots along the Costa del Sol
British holidaymakers hoping to leave behind the rain by heading to Spain have been met with torrential downpours and flooding.
Bad weather in large swathes of eastern Spain have brought chaos to the Costas. Benidorm was on yellow storm alert today with the possibility of rain put at 100 per cent. Hail stones have fallen in some parts of the Valencian community, which includes the provinces of Alicante and Valencia, with more predicted today..
Further south in Murcia, roads have been turned into raging torrents. In its capital city locals and tourists were pictured ankle-deep in water in its main street as they tried to negotiate their way past shops while others took refuge inside.
Elsewhere in the province cars were seen and wheelie bins were seen ‘swimming’ down streets which looked more like rivers and firefighters were said to be “working tirelessly” with roads closed in some places.
Towns like Yecla, on Murcia’s north-east border with Alicante, are among the places where high temperatures and blue skies have given way to amazing scenes of hailstones and gusting winds in the past few hours.
A Spanish weather website, flagging up large parts of eastern Spain including the Costa Blanca, warned earlier this morning: “In the next few hours storms will dump dozens of litres of water and hail on these areas in a very short space of time. Be careful.” It added: “The forecasts proved to be correct and yesterday storms erupted forcefully in parts of the east and centre of the peninsula. In the next few hours intense downpours will gain protagonism in several areas.”
The yellow storm and rain alert in place for the Costa Blanca over the next couple of days, as well as the Balearic Islands of Ibiza and Majorca for today only, is not set to be lifted until Thursday.
Bad sea conditions on the Costa Blanca ahead of this week’s flooding were blamed for a string of drownings in the province of Alicante last week and over the weekend. One of the victims was a 52-year-old British holidaymaker who died on Friday after going to the aid of two children in the water at La Roqueta beach just north of Torrevieja. A 46-year-old Polish man who also tried to help them drowned too.
By contrast British holidaymakers on the Costa del Sol were today basking in glorious sunshine. In Marbella, where today is a local Bank Holiday coinciding with the resort’s annual feria festival, tourists were topping up their tans under blue skies in 26 degrees Celsius temperatures (78 degrees Fahrenheit).
It made a welcome break for those who had just flown in from the UK. Office worker Sally Jones, 26, said: “I was in desperate need of sunshine. The weather’s been really gloomy back home. I’ve got friends who are on the Costa Blanca right now and are saying they wished they’d come on holiday with me instead.”
