Storm Francis sweeps coast: first weekend of 2026 sees emergency warnings and heavy Flooding
Mobile phones sounded twice as latest storm left more than 200mm of rainfall in Guadalhorce Valley and Costa del Sol
Matías Stuber
Malaga.
Friday, 9 January 2026, 12:52
The piercing beep of the emergency red alert sent out to mobile phones at 2.41pm and 200mm of rainfall: those were the two things Malaga province residents will remember from the first Sunday of 2026, when Storm Francis swept through the Guadalhorce Valley and the Costa del Sol.
The regional government of Andalucía activated a red alert to warn people of the high risk in the early afternoon on 4 January. It kept residents in inland Cártama especially awake through the night. During the day, they watched how the Guadalhorce river was accumulating more water, threatening to overflow. Fortunately, that did not happen, but the regional government had prepared sports centres and other housing alternatives in case people had to be evicted from their homes. Shops, hotels, museums and theatres in Malaga city and elsewhere on the Costa del Sol closed after the red alert was activated.
Storm Francis had already made its presence felt in Estepona. Residents in the area of Las Mesas reported flooding in doorways, communal areas, lifts and garages.
The emergency services were also sent out in Casares and Benahavís, among other municipalities. In Manilva, the river overflowed late in the afternoon and the Guadiaro river in Casares was on the verge of overflowing. Coín was also particularly hit by the heavy rain which caused a bridge over the river Grande to be swept away.
In the Fuengirola riverside park, the water level even went over the top of the access stairways. In inland Monda a wall of a building collapsed forcing some residents to leave their homes.
Much of the brunt was once again borne by Cártama. With hardly any time to recover from the floods of 27 December, the Guadalhorce river again threatened the local population.
The authorities asked residents to avoid spreading false alarms and warned of hoaxes that were circulating on social media talking about an overflow of the Guadalhorce river, even though that did not happen. Some rescues were made of people trapped close to the river.
Icy blast hits Costa before temperatures return to normal
Winter arrived on the Costa del Sol in time for Three Kings Day on Tuesday this week but the unusually cold temperatures only lasted for 48 hours. As state weather agency Aemet predicted, a mass of Arctic air arrived at the end of Monday, right on time for the traditional parades and stayed until Wednesday. However, the short-lived wintry situation got back to normal on Thursday, with temperatures slightly more typical for this time of year. Malaga province experienced the rare phenomenon after a "colder than normal" December.s
Around 10pm on Sunday another alert through mobile phones went out. This time it was only a reminder to the public about the precautions in place.
The Junta de Andalucía confirmed on Monday morning that emergency services had been called out to more than 200 incidents reported in the province of Malaga up to then. Most of them were related to floodings of homes, streets and roads.
