A change in the weather with rain likely on the Costa del Sol

A public holiday weekend is coming up in Andalucía and we are likely to need our umbrellas, says Jesús Riesco, the provincial director of Aemet, the Spanish Met Office. The rain will be brought by what is called a DANA in Spanish (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos), a high-level isolated depression, but these are unpredictable and Riesco says it is still too early to know exactly what route it will take.

“Even a small diversion from its expected route can change everything,” he says, “but instead of rain on Thursday and Friday only as we were predicting, it now looks as if it will continue right through the weekend and into Monday, which is the Andalucía Day holiday”. On the other hand, if the DANA heads more towards the Atlantic, the Costa del Sol could have very little rain at all.

For the moment, Aemet says the rain is probably going to be moderate. “We’re not expecting heavy rain, but it should be significantly more than the few drops we had last Sunday,” says Riesco. “It will also depend on where you are; the rain is likely to be heaviest in inland areas but that doesn’t mean the coast is going to escape it”.

For those in Malaga city, the outlook is that umbrellas will be a wise precaution on Friday, with the probability of rain between 55 and 90 per cent. The likelihood of showers drops to 20 per cent on Saturday but will rise again to 50 per cent on Sunday and Monday.

It all depends on what the DANA does, and they are notoriously unpredictable.