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Weather

Aemet maintains amber alert for heavy rain in Malaga province until midday today as some councils activate their emergency plans

During the night, thunderstorms with lightning and rain have followed one after the other. This Tuesday the most affected areas are expected to be Malaga city, resorts along the Costa del Sol and towns in the Guadalhorce valley

Ignacio Lillo

Malaga

Tuesday, 29 October 2024, 07:28

Caution is advised as to what could happen with the 'Dana' (isolated high level depression) today, after Spain's state weather agency raised the original yellow warnings to amber level for Malaga city, the Costa del Sol and the Guadalhorce valley. The forecast risk is that the discharges of heavy rain caused by this phenomenon could leave up to 30mm in one hour, and up to 80mm during the whole episode. The amber "significant risk" weather warning has been in effect since 6pm on Monday although the worst is expected during the early hours of this Tuesday 29th, between 00.00 and 11.59am. In the Serranía de Ronda area there is also a risk of downpours of up to 20mm in one hour (yellow level). Last night there was a succession of thunderstorms with lightning and downpours in many parts of the province.

Unfortunately, given the location of the heaviest downpours, at points close to the coast, it is not surprising that the reservoirs have continued to lose reserves in the middle of a wet spell, and are clearly below the level they had the previous week, in all cases except for the Casasola reservoir, which is up slightly.

As the saying goes, so far the 'Dana' has left much ado about nothing. While we wait to see what it leaves behind during the early hours of this Tuesday morning, when the forecast models predict the heaviest downpours, as the Dana is manifesting itself in a more spectacular than tangible way.

Thunderstorm

The thunderstorm that developed during the early hours of Sunday to Monday off the Bay of Malaga and at points along the coast was very striking. Although, except for the accumulated rainfall in Benalmádena and Arroyo de la Miel, which, depending on the sources taken as a reference, left between 55 and 70mm in a few hours, in the rest of the rain gauges, both public and private, the figures were much lower.

"Storms have that: in some areas a lot and in others very little", said José Luis Escudero, an expert in Malaga's meteorology and head of the SUR blog Tormentas y Rayos (Storms and Lightning). Escudero has taken all the available data sources to list the most important accumulations: Aemet and the Hidrosur network (public); and Meteoclimatic (collaborative).

From this perspective, in addition to the cases already mentioned, the following stand out: Torremolinos, where 33mm of rain was collected; Alhaurín de la Torre, with 18mm; Alcaucín (17.6); Sierra de Mijas (17); Torre del Mar (13); Fahala (Alhaurín el Grande, 8); El Trapiche (Vélez-Málaga, 6) and the Limonero reservoir (4.5). In the rest, hardly more than 2-3mmm2, that is to say, only a token amount.

As of Monday, the total amount of water in Malaga province's reservoirs was still more than one cubic hectometre lower than the previous week (94.6 Hm3 compared to 96). All the large reservoirs are losing water, except for Casasola, which is the only one with a positive balance after last weekend's storms.

The amber alert activated by Aemet for Monday afternoon, early this morning and until midday today has led the local councils of Malaga city and Alhaurín de la Torre to activate their municipal emergency plans.

In this way, both municipalities, which are at the epicentre of the area where the amber warning is activated, have put their assistance systems on alert in the event of possible flooding. The Local Police, Civil Protection volunteers, CPB provincial fire brigade, Guardia Civil, water and sanitation technicians, health services, etc. will be on standby for any incidents that may arise.

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surinenglish Aemet maintains amber alert for heavy rain in Malaga province until midday today as some councils activate their emergency plans