Unusual winter landscapes as Spain feels sting of cold snap
Only the Canary Islands are outside the reach of the nearly week-long weather event
Every region in Spain, save for the Canary Islands, was on a weather alert on Wednesday due to a cold spell, the effects of which are expected to last until Saturday. The cold snap has already given rise to unusual images across the peninsula, including wintry landscapes on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.
Other unlikely places such as eastern Andalusia, Valencia and the Spanish city of Ceuta, located on the northern coast of Africa, are expecting to see snow sometime on Wednesday or Thursday. Ceuta has not seen snow since 1993.
Temperatures have dropped between 8ºC and 10ºC on average across the country, with parts of Aragón and Catalonia expecting to see -12ºC today. The wind-chill factor will make it seem much colder, however.
In Madrid, street thermometers were showing -8ºC at 7am.
Alejandro Roa, a spokesman for the Spanish national weather service Aemet, said that what’s most interesting about this cold snap is not the cold temperature in itself, since no records are going to be shattered. Instead, it is its sheer scope, considering that only the Canary Islands, located west of Morocco, are out of its reach.
The Aemet said there are 43 provinces on either orange or yellow alert (with red representing the highest risk).
Almería, one of Spain’s driest regions and a popular filming location for Westerns because of its arid landscape, is expecting 10 centimeters of snowfall in the Valley of Almanzora and Los Vélez. In Campo de Tabernas, whose famous desert served as the backdrop for Sergio Leone films, the Aemet is forecasting four centimeters of snow. At 5am on Wednesday, a weather station atop the Sierra de los Filabres mountain range recorded -15ºC, La Voz de Almería reports.
English version by Susana Urra.
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