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The train of weather fronts that are battering Malaga province have brought a new visitor with them: Konrad and an associated secondary storm. As a result, this Thursday (13 March) Spain's state weather agency Aemet has activated 'risk' alerts yellow, for heavy rain, strong winds and high waves. The rain forecast covers the whole of Thursday and almost all of Friday. Over the weekend, there will be a certain degree of stability, before giving way to more rain again from Monday onwards.
On the Costa del Sol, Guadalhorce, Malaga and Axarquia, rainfall today Thursday may exceed 15mm in one hour and 40 in twelve. Wind gusts of up to 70 kilometres per hour are forecast. The coastal warning along the entire coastline points to winds from the west and southwest of up to 60 km/h (force 7) and waves of 2 to 4 metres.
At least the rivers in the province, which have been sparking daily flood alerts for a week now, gave some respite yesterday afternoon. The Grande, as it passes through Las Millanas, came out of the yellow level at five o'clock. During the previous days, it, as well as the Genal, Guadiario, Campanillas, Turón and the Guadalhorce at different points across the province had intermittently registered yellow and amber flood warnings.
In the case of the reservoirs, steady refilling continues to be the norm. They now hold in excess of 265 million cubic metres. The seven reservoirs in the province are at 44% of their total capacity and have gained more than 90 million cubic metres since the start of the rainy season. This is, to put the figure into perspective, the equivalent of the annual consumption of the western Costa del Sol, between Torremolinos and Manilva.
And the gain could have been greater had it not been for the obligatory opening of the sluice gates for safety reasons. Since Friday at two o'clock in the afternoon, the La Concepción reservoir near Marbella has been releasing water, which means it has only been able to gain 2 million cubic metres in a week. It is releasing significant volumes. Yesterday afternoon it had gone from 30 to 20 cubic metres per second, but it has released up to 60 on occasions. Right now it is storing 47.8 cubic hectometres and is maintaining the level.
20
cubic metres of water per second were being released on Wednesday afternoon at La Concepción reservoir near Marbella.
The Conde de Guadalhorce, with 66 million cubic metres, at 93% capacity, has also been releasing water. It stores enough water for a year and a half in Malaga city. Its waters flow into the Tajo de la Encantada, where Endesa also releases between 5 and 20 cubic metres per second due to the increase in the level of the counter reservoir.
It has every chance of joining the Casasola floodgate openings on the river Campanillas. It is at an unusually high level compared to normal, given that it is a barrage dam. It holds 19 million cubic metres and is at 87% of its capacity. At the moment, together with the Tomillar, it is the one supplying the city (the Limonero and La Viñuela were the others recently).
Regarding the water releases, the Guadalhorce system is being allowed to 'rest'. It is not being used because of excess dragging, organic matter and, in short, turbidity of the water, which also affects the system formed by the Aljaima weir and wells, operated by Emasa in the Cártama district.
The Guadalteba reservoir is also taking in a lot of water and is also above 47 million cubic metres. More timid is the recovery of the salinised Guadalhorce, which is already on its way to 30 million cubic metres. The Limonero is also filling up more than usual: it is storing almost 10 million cubic metres.
And the evolution of La Viñuela in the Axarquía, on the way to 50 million cubic metres could be described as a relief. It has more than doubled its level in this hydrological year. If it stays above 41.5 million cubic metres for a few months it will emerge from the most serious level of drought.
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