Spain braces itself for 'the first onslaught of winter'

The Meteored weather expert, Francisco Martín, is warning of plummeting temperatures, heavy rain and even snowfall in many parts of the Spanish mainland and the Balearic Islands next week.

Martin is forecasting that this weekend an intensifying 'polar jet' is likely to begin to develop, a process that could generate a powerful Atlantic ridge west of the British Isles and a storm in central Europe, causing the entry of a possible isolated depression at a high level (DANA) over Spain that would later move towards the Mediterranean.

The expert predicts that, as of Sunday, the weather situation in Spain could change dramatically as the DANA would trigger "very heavy rain" particularly in the northern third of the peninsula and the Balearics. His forecast also indicates that snowfall could affect "many" high areas of the mainland. In the words of Martin, "this seems almost guaranteed" and adds that, together with the wind, the feeling of cold will be "intensified".

For all these reasons, Martín predicts a "weather change" for next week which, if confirmed, would be "the first onslaught of winter" although he has ruled out that "the arrival of a new storm Filomena will happen because the evolving situation is not the same", although he warned that "we should keep a close eye" on the forecasts.