'Extreme danger' red weather warning stood down after torrential rain hits Malaga and Costa del Sol towns

The adverse weather forecasts came true and the storm hit Malaga province hard on Saturday night and this Sunday morning. The heavy rains that began to fall in the afternoon forced the activation of the red alert in the western Costa del Sol, Guadalhorce valley and Malaga city areas from 9pm. Mobile phones of the 27 municipalities in these areas at 9.16pm received a mass ES-Alert message warning the population of the danger.

Meanwhile, the weather warning level was amber in Ronda and yellow in the Antequera and Axarquia areas. In addition to the rainfall, particularly heavy in the Marbella and the Guadalhorce valley areas, there was also hail, storms, cold, and strong winds which left waves of several metres along the coast. The Aemet forecast is that the rains will continue this Sunday.

The weather conditions, in addition to the alert levels activated by Aemet, led several local councils to implement their local emergency plans for civil protection. This was done in Estepona, Malaga city, Antequera, Rincón de la Victoria, Marbella, Fuengirola, Genalguacil, Alhaurín de la Torre, Cártama, Alhaurín El Grande, Campillos, Torremolinos, Mijas, Benalmádena, Coín, Teba, Alozaina and Yunquera. Likewise, the Junta de Andalucía raised the 'Flood Risk Plan' to emergency phase, operational situation 1, as announced by the regional minister of the Presidency, Antonio Sanz. It should be remembered that the plan had been in the pre-emergency phase since 24 December.

The rainfall began to fall in the western areas shortly after midday and swept across Malaga province from west to east, leaving significant amounts of rainfall at certain points and numerous incidents such as flooded streets and flooding of houses and garages. According to the latest data from to the Junta's Hidrosur monitoring network some 101mm litres per square metre was measured in the last twelve hours in Casarabonela; 93 in the Guadalhorce river as it passes through Cártama; 101 in Casarabonela; 93 in the Guadalhorce river as it passes through Cártama; 102 at the Aljaima weir in Cártama; 80mm in Coín; 64 at the Marbella treatment plant; 54 at the La Concepción reservoir in Marbella; 49 in Ojén, and 42 in Jubrique and the Conde de Guadalhorce reservoir. In Monda, the Wunderground amateur rain gauge network measured 120mm

In addition, hail fell in various places such as Alhaurín el Grande, Mijas and Benahavís. In the latter municipality there was a landslide which, together with the hail, forced the total closure of the A-397 road, which connects Ronda with San Pedro Alcántara, in both directions from kilometre point 13 to 31 between 7.21pm and 8.14pm hours, according to DGT traffic sources.

The torrential downpours also caused a part of the bridge over the Los Caballos river in Tolox to collapse and a pine tree to fall in the area known as the 'white curve' of the MA-5401 road, which connects Casarabonela with El Burgo, forcing the road to be closed.

These were just three of the numerous incidents that occurred in the province as a result of the storm. Up to 54 alerts were attended in Malaga province during the early hours of the evening by 112 Andalucía, with Marbella being the most affected town, where several streets were flooded. Incidents were also attended to in Alhaurín de la Torre, Antequera, Benahavís, Casares, Estepona, Fuengirola, Igualeja, Iznate, Málaga, Manilva, Mijas, Rincón de la Victoria, Ronda, Torremolinos and Vélez-Málaga.

Fallen elements (fences, traffic signs, telephone poles, lampposts, branches, Christmas lighting, awnings, elements of façades etc); flooding in garages and homes and traffic accidents without injuries accounted for the majority of these warnings, according to the Junta de Andalucía.

During the night the attention was focused on Cártama, where the A-7057 road linking Maqueda with Estación de Cártama was cut off due to the water levels and there was concern about the high water level of the Guadalhorce river as it passes through this town due to the risk of flooding.

The adverse weather also affected air traffic, as more than 20 flights bound for Malaga Airport were diverted to other cities. Most of them were sent to the airports of Seville, Almeria and Granada, although two were diverted to Alicante and one to Madrid.

On the other hand, as a precaution, Saturday's session of 'Alice Christmas', the light show at Malaga's La Concepción botanical garden, was cancelled. In addition, the city council suspended the light and sound shows in Calle Larios and the videomapping in the Cathedral at 8.30pm and 10pm due to the weather.

This announcement came shortly before Spain's state weather agency Aemet activated the red warning for the western Costa del Sol and Guadalhorce-Malaga areas, which led to the activation of the ES-Alert system on mobile phones for alerts of serious situations. This is the third time in the province that this system has been put into operation, with a loud intermittent beep on the mobile phone accompanied by a text message from the Civil Protection service informing of the situation. The first time it was activated was in November 2024 due to heavy rains and the second time last March in the Ronda area.

The rains on Saturday and Sunday, together with the runoff generated by the rains of previous days, meant that the reservoirs were on the way to 300 million cubic metres of stored reserves after half past one in the morning. This is a rise of 20 million cubic metres in just two weeks, practically half the annual consumption of the city of Malaga. The provincial reserves are at almost half their storage capacity.