The government meteorological agency (Aemet) issued warnings on Wednesday due to bad seas, winds and snowfall affecting 16 states as well as the autonomous city of Melilla. Among them, seven provinces in the north of the peninsula – located in Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country – are at the orange level due to a forecast of a strong sea storm, according to the latest report from the government agency.
Specifically, the wave-activated orange warning includes the cities of Guipuzcoa, Vizcaya, La Coruña, Lugo, Pontevedra and Cantabria – on their coasts – and Asturias, both on the western and eastern coasts. The sea is expected to be northwesterly in these areas, with wave heights reaching between five and six metres, with wind gusts ranging in speed between 50 and 74 kilometers per hour.
On the other hand, other areas of the coast will also be affected by the storm, albeit less severely. Almeria, Granada, Girona and Melilla are under a yellow warning due to coastal phenomena, where extreme caution against wave action is recommended.
Burgos, Palencia and Valladolid also remain under a yellow warning due to fog, while Tarragona and Castellón are under a yellow warning due to winds of up to 80 kilometers per hour. The provinces with snow warnings are Madrid (Sierra de Madrid), Avila and Segovia (Central System), with accumulations of 5 cm in 24 hours above 1000-1200 metres.
Thunderstorms and occasional hail
Likewise, Emmett expects the successive passage of fronts to leave cloudy or overcast skies over much of the peninsula and Balearic Islands during the day on Wednesday. There will be rainfall with some storms and occasional hail in Galicia, the Cantabrian coast, the western Pyrenees, Melilla and the eastern Balearic Islands, where it can be locally strong, as well as persistent in the eastern end of the Cantabrian Sea. Initially, it will also affect large areas of the central and southern half of the peninsula, the Pitiosas Islands and parts of Catalonia.
Maximum temperatures will decrease in the Mediterranean regions, in the eastern interior of the peninsula and in the Pyrenees, while slight increases will be seen in the rest of the northern half of Aragon, in Navarra and in western Galicia. In the rest of the peninsula there will be few changes
As for the minimum, declines will prevail in most parts of the country, with the exception of the Canary Islands. Amit also expects weak frosts in large areas of the interior of the northern half, as well as in the mountains of the southeast of the peninsula, and moderate frosts in the northern mountain systems.