Storm Nuria: How will it affect Malaga and the Costa del Sol?

Storm Nuria has been making itself felt in the province of Malaga since the early hours of this Thursday morning, in the form of moderate rainfall which has left accumulated amounts of more than 20mm up to 8am in some inland areas, according to the latest information provided by the Junta de Andalucia's Hidrosur network.

So far, the wettest spot in the province has been the upper Axarquia, specifically the town of Alfarnatejo, with 21mm, followed by Alcaucín, with 17. The Fuente Piedra lake (15), Guadalteba river and the Guadalhorce river in Bobadilla (15) have also benefited from this first dampening. Many other points in the inland areas of the province have received accumulated rainfall of between 10 and 15mm, which is serving to reinforce the water reserves in the reservoirs, recharge aquifers and irrigate the fields.

With these numbers, it is not surprising that the level of the reservoirs has remained stable over the last few hours, despite the fact that since yesterday El Limonero, in Malaga city, has been added to the releases already under way in Casasola (also in the city); La Concepción (western Costa del Sol) and Conde del Guadalhorce.

The level of stored water exceeds 58% of total capacity at 8am., with almost 356 million cubic metres. What is happening is that the outflows in the dams that are already full (or have a maximum level of protection) are being compensated for by the inflows of water into those that still have spare capacity.

In this case, the one that is benefiting most from the latest rains is La Viñuela, which supplies the Axarquía and which is already at around 47% of its capacity, with around 77 million cubic metres; and the best thing is that it will continue to rise in the coming hours due to the runoff left by the latest downpours. The Guadalteba and Guadalhorce also continue to receive abundant inflows (47% and 42%, respectively).

Spain's state weather agency's forecast considers rainfall in the province of Malaga to be a certainty for this Thursday and tomorrow, Friday. For the now, Aemet has not seen the need to activate any warnings, as moderate rainfall is generally expected.

As for the time of distribution, today it will be more likely until 12noon. From then until approximately 6pm, a low-risk clearing will open up. And then the weather fronts will return to unload rain during the late afternoon and evening. As for Friday, the bulk of the precipitation will be concentrated between the early hours of the morning and 6pm. From then on, there is not expected to be any more rain.

In theory, there is no risk of precipitation on Saturday; and on Sunday there is a probability, although it is low. No new storms are expected to arrive in Spain during the first days of next week.