More than 20,000 bolts of lightning and 20mm of rain in an hour: heavy downpours and hail startles Malaga in the early hours of the morning

The people of Malaga city and the province have not experienced a night like this for a long time. The 'Dana' (isolated high level depression), one of those that hit the city full force, unloaded its full force during the early hours of this Tuesday morning. The shock of the heavy rain caused the social media networks to immediately be swamped with videos of the downpour.

To the almost continuous storm, which many described as "a discotheque" due to the profusion of continuous flashes of light; to which was added the abundant rain and the hail, which fortunately was small in size , but very loud as it hit the roofs of houses and cars. According to sources consulted by SUR, up to 20,000 lightning strikes were recorded in the province.

For the first time, at least since March, it has really rained in the city. The rain gauge of the Hidrosur network on the Paseo de La Farola, in La Malagueta, measured no less than 21.4 mm in just one hour, between 4am and 5am. In total, since it started last night, 42mm of rain has been measured at this point.

In nearby points, such as El Atabal or the Limonero and Casasola reservoirs, it also rained, but with an intensity that, while not negligible, was lower. In the first case, no heavy rain was recorded at that time, while in the other two, between 13 and 15mm were recorded.

The second by-product of the storm is that, at last, some water is reaching the reservoirs of the Guadalhorce system, which supply the city and the valley of the same name.

In the absence of the effect of runoff from the reservoirs being recorded in the next few hours, the three reservoirs received more than 30 mm of rain this morning, according to Hidrosur data. In Guadalteba, for example, there were 34mm, and 33 in El Conde. Also the one at La Viñuela, in the Axarquia, has collected 20mm overnight.