2009 is the second warmest year in Spain since 1961

With the data for December still to be added, 2009 has been the second warmest year in Spain since 1961, behind only 2006.

Ángel Rivera, from the Spanish Meteorological Agency, AEMET, said that the average temperature this year has been 16.5ºC, 1.25º warmer than the average. Average rainfall over the year has been 20% below average, although some months have seen 40% less rain than normal. Autumn temperatures have been 1.7º higher than normal values. (Via Original Source)

Travellers are facing severe transport disruption as heavy snow falls across much of the UK, with south-east and north-east England worst affected.

The Met Office issued severe warnings for heavy snowfall in London, south-east and east England, as well as north-east England and East Midlands.

Up to 20cm of snow is possible in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, London and East Anglia, with gale-force winds causing drifts.

11 regions of the country have a fiesta on both Monday and Tuesday

The bank holiday weather, with both Monday and Tuesday fiestas in Spain for the Puente de la Constitución y la Imaculada, will see travellers having to pack their umbrellas and coats.

As the Constitution Day falls on a Sunday this year, 11 of Spain’s regions have moved the fiesta to the Monday, and this links up with the National Fiesta for the Inmaculada on Tuesday. Monday is a fiesta in the following regions – Andalucía, Aragón, Asturias, Baleares, Canarias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia and La Rioja.

Intense weather conditions in Wales and southern England brought an abrupt end to an unusually mild autumn, with isolated flooding in south-western England and severe winds in coastal regions.

Drama was not confined to the south-west, however, with a fast rescue craft from an unnamed North Sea oil rig running aground at Britain’s most easterly point.

Three men were rescued unhurt from the vessel by Lowestoft lifeboat on Friday night after the craft became stuck on a disused jetty at Ness Point in Suffolk, an RNLI spokeswoman said.

An elderly couple and a young woman died in Spain after their cars were swept away by flash floods, police said Thursday.

The couple in their 70s died Wednesday after the 4×4 vehicle they were travelling in was caught in flood waters in the region of Jaen in southern Spain which dragged it more than 50 metres (yards).

The Levante winds are thought to be the principal cause

THE temperature of the sea this August on the Costa del Sol is the warmest it has been for more than 25 years, the Spanish Oceanography Institute reports. The average temperature of the water in August is 20.7 degrees Centigrade (give or take 2.5 degrees).

Travel companies are expecting a surge in last–minute bookings to Europe after the Met Office reversed its predictions for a barbecue summer.

The Met Office said today that it expects more rain for August – in contrast to its positive summer forecast in April when it claimed that Britain was “odds-on for a barbecue summer”.

The 46 year old was working on solar panels at the time

A 46 year old man has died from heat stroke in Úbeda in Sevilla province. It has been revealed that the death happened on Wednesday last week as temperatures reached 40 degrees in the area and the man was working installing and maintaining solar panels. He died two hours after being rushed to hospital. It’s the second reported heat-stroke death in Spain this summer following an earlier tragedy in Murcia.

Orange Alerts are in place Tuesday for parts of Andalucía

The high temperatures retreat in Spain today to their traditional area of Andalucía.

The AEMET Spanish Meteorological Agency has issued orange alerts for high temperatures for Tuesday in Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote on the Canaries, and in the provinces of Huelva, Sevilla, Córdoba, Jaén and Granada.

Yellow alerts remain in place in Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro, in Cádiz, Málaga, Almería, Badajoz, Ciudad Real, Albacete, Cáceres, Toledo, Cuenca, Salamanca, Ávila, Guadalajara and Madrid.

Temperatures over 40 degrees are forecast in some areas today

Seven provinces in Spain remain on alert for high temperatures today.

In Murcia temperatures over 40 degrees are expected as an Orange Alert is used by the Met. Agency, which says that highest temperatures will be in the NE of the region in Altiplano, Valle del Guadaletín, Lorca, Águilas and Vega del Segura between 1pm and 7pm where red alerts have now been issued. Yesterday at 5pm the temperature reached 44.6 in Murcia.

There will be no respite in temperatures until the weekend

The heatwave affecting the south and east of Spain will continue until Friday, but the weekend will bring some relief from the high temperatures.

Tourists in Granada headed for the shade as temperatures soared to 44 degrees, while in the Murcia region the overnight temperatures fell last night to little lower than 30 degrees in some areas.

The Basque Country’s San Sebastián had the highest average rainfall in 2007

Alicante is officially the sunniest city of Valencia, according to the latest data released by the INE National Statistics Institute.
The sun shone on the Costa Blanca capital for 2,820 hours during 2007, with an average year-round temperature of 19.1 degrees Centigrade. Rainfall was also the lowest in the region, with 512.5 millimetres.

The province of Jaén is the only one on Orange alert today

More than 20 provinces are on a weather alert for high temperatures today and some areas will see more than 40º as a wave of intense heat makes its way across the country.

Yellow alerts have been issued by the Spanish Meteorological Agency for a total of 23 provinces.
Only one province, Jaén, has been placed on the higher Orange alert.

The week starts with high temperature alerts in Murcia and Valencia

The start of July sees temperatures on the rise in Spain this week with sunshine along all the Mediterranean coasts where there will also be some cloud in places at times.
Stormy showers are forecast this week in the NE of the mainland, less likely the further south or west you go.
In Andalucía most of the cloud will be of a high type and to the west of the region, although cloud will also form later in the days over the sierras inland.
Chance of early morning mist in some regions of the Valencia region early on, but this will burn off later.
Winds generally weak and variable, veering westerly, with onshore sea breezes later in the day.

A storm packing winds of more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) an hour injured about a dozen people in southern Spain, including one person in serious condition, an emergency services spokeswoman said Monday. Most of the injuries were cuts and bruises from flying debris as the storm knocked down tree branches and advertising billboards and tore off parts of roofs, she said. In the Mediterranean port of Malaga, winds ripped of part of the roof of the city’s main bus station. Four people were injured, including one who in serious condition. Further west in Estepona, near Marbella, the storm knocked down a circus tent during a performance Sunday night, slightly injuring five members of the public. The storm disrupted ferry travel from the port city of Algeciras to Morocco while snowfall on Sunday snarled traffic in several parts of Spain including the capital Madrid. Last month 14 people, including at least four children, died in Spain in violent storms that swept across southern Europe. (Via <a href=”http://www.expatica.com/es/news/local_news/Several-injured-in-storm-in-southern-Spain_49194.html”>Expatica</a>)