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State of the roads near the A-7 motorway in Puerto Banús at midnight. Josele
Weather

Downpours have already left more than 130mm of rain in Malaga province and they will continue until Thursday

Last night's storm caused flooding in the streets of Estepona and Marbella. According to state weather agency Aemet, after a brief window this morning the rains will return this Tuesday afternoon

Ignacio Lillo

Malaga

Tuesday, 15 October 2024, 08:45

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Storms caused by the remnants of Hurricane Leslie raged in and around the Estepona and Marbella areas of the Costa del Sol late last night which was on alert for downpours. So much so that Spain's state weather agency was forced to raise the warning level to amber in the evening, due to the risk of downpours depositing up to 50mm in one hour.

The rain gauge of the Junta de Andalucía's Hidrosur network located in Los Reales de Sierra Bermeja, to the north of the municipality, measured two episodes of very high intensity. The heaviest, between 10pm and 11pm, reached 29.5mm, bordering on the amber threshold. Just one hour earlier, between 10pm and 11pm, it was 19.7mm. As a result, more than 72mm have been collected in just 12 hours, and close to a hundred if yesterday's rainfall is added.

For the purposes of the recovery of the battered water reserves, the most relevant data is that of the Guadalmansa diversion dam, one of the three that make up the La Concepción water transfer system, in addition to the main tributary, which is the river Verde. In the main reservoir on the Costa del Sol some 130mm had been collected between Sunday and Monday, according to data from the Hidrosur network. Of these, no less than 34mm came in the form of a very heavy downpour, between 11pm and midnight yesterday.

Despite the fact that it is raining well, especially in the far west of the Malaga province, the reservoirs at the moment only cover regular consumption and are barely gaining net reserves. This is the situation after last weekend and Monday, the first really rainy period so far this autumn in Malaga, in which more than 120 litres per square metre have already accumulated in the Sierra de las Nieves, according to data from the Acamet amateur weather network.

In the western part of Malaga, in fact, it was already raining on wet ground last night, never better said. Hours earlier, the A-7 motorway was turned into a lake at Cancelada, in Estepona, after receiving 27mm in a downpour which lasted barely 40 minutes at the height of the morning rush hour, specifically, between 7am and 8am This figure is still at the yellow threshold, but very close to the amber warning (from 30mm). In addition, the rain was loaded with mud due to the 'calima' haze of dust from the Sahara desert.

Salvador Guzmán, a meteorology enthusiast and resident of Coín, was having breakfast in the same bar that he usually does next to the A-7 motorway, some 200 metres from the exit to the residential development, and recorded a video that immediately went viral on social media networks, showing vehicles struggling to make their way along the flooded road.

A downpour discharged almost 30mm in just 40 minutes in Cancelada and flooded one of the carriageways of the A-7 motorway

"It was difficult to get into the area where the bar is, but once there I said to myself: 'I'm not leaving here, I could get stuck'," he said. In fact, some cars were briefly stranded in the middle of the lake, although they were finally able to continue. Shortly afterwards, road maintenance workers marked the lane with cones, so that only one lane remained open for part of the morning.

Guzmán estimated that the downpour lasted 35-40 minutes and left around 30mm, which caused up to half a metre of water to accumulate on the road, which "covered the wheels of the cars".

On the other hand, the heavy rains in Setenil de las Bodegas, in the province of Cadiz, were also felt, although to a lesser extent, in the hamlet of Los Prados, which is part of Ronda. The main road in this village was practically flooded and the water entered, among other places, a supermarket, although without major consequences.

Despite these good downpours, until yesterday the reservoir of La Concepción, the main one serving the western Costa del Sol had still not even managed to equal the level of water in the reservoir of the previous week. For the moment, it has only managed to compensate for the domestic consumption of the last few days, but not a net gain in reserves.

On the other hand, the amounts are lower in the Guadalhorce and Guadalteba basins, with between 20 and 25mm so far in this first wet spell of autumn, depending on the measurement point taken. As for La Viñuela in the Axarquía, it has collected only 14mm.

It is therefore not surprising that the reservoirs supplying Malaga city, the Guadalhorce valley and the Axarquia have still hardly noticed any improvement, given that there has not really been any significant rainfall in these hydrological basins.

Prediction

According to the director of the Aemet meteorological centre in Malaga, Jesús Riesco, after a brief window this morning, the rains will return this Tuesday afternoon and continue during the day on Wednesday. On Thursday there will be the last minor flurries, and from Friday onwards stability will return.

María Albarral and Vanessa Melgar contributed to this report.

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