Amber alert activated for heavy downpours on the Costa del Sol, until Wednesday morning

The weather forecasts in Spain have been accurate and the ‘dana, isolated high altitude depression, that threatens to leave heavy rain in Andalucía has been located in the Gulf of Cadiz. It began to deposit the first drops in Malaga province late on Monday, 6 February, and early this Tuesday, according to the local meteorology expert in his SUR blog, Tormentas y Rayos.

The state weather agency, Aemet, has already activated an amber alert for bad weather today, 7 February, especially on the western Costa del Sol (Estepona and Marbella area) and the Guadalhorce valley with downpours that could deposit 30mm in one hour and 80mm in 12 hours. In Malaga city there will also be heavy rain, but of less intensity, and in the Axarquía only light showers are expected. It was initially put in placve until midnight, but now it has been extended until Wednesday morning.

According to the Aemet forecast, the rain will hang around in the province to a greater or lesser extent until Wednesday, although in areas such as the Serranía de Ronda, rainfall is expected to stay until the end of the week.

At a national level, the arrival on Monday of a very cold air mass from the European continent will cause frosts in the interior of the mainland, especially in the northern and eastern halves and snowfall at low levels, with accumulations of up to 20 centimetres of snow in the east, reports Aemet. It specifies that the most copious snowfall will occur in the Pyrenees, in mountainous areas of Eastern Andalusia and west of Murcia and, "especially" in the interior of the Valencia province, inland in Castellón and to the east of Teruel.

The state weather agency has also said that there could also be maritime storms in the Mediterranean.