Cold front heads towards east of country and Balearics as Madrid reels from flash-floods

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Parts of eastern Spain and the Balearic islands are bracing for heavy rains after Madrid and the surrounding area were battered by violent storms, torrential hail, and flash flooding.

Roads around the Spanish capital were flooded, flights diverted from Barajas airport and underground services affected on Monday night as an isolated depression at high levels moved across the centre of the Iberian peninsula.

The skies over Madrid were lit up by more than 9,300 bolts of lightning, according to Spain’s state meteorological office, Aemet.

One of the worst-hit areas was the satellite town of Arganda del Rey, where cars and rubbish bins were carried away by the torrents and residents used shovels to clear roads and pavements of drifts of hail. Aemet said the town had experienced 46.4 litres of rainfall per square metre as the storms rolled in.

Arganda’s underground station remained closed on Tuesday morning and the council set up a centre to help those affected by the floods.

On Monday night, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the president of the Madrid region, said firefighters had dealt with more than 200 incidents and asked people to take care.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lightning in San Sebastián during the storm on Monday. Photograph: Javier Etxezarreta/EPA

Madrid’s emergency services said they had been called to 1,134 incidents between 4pm and 9pm on Monday and had worked to clear trees and branches from roads and deal with flood waters and inundated garages and basements.

Aemet said the cold front was moving eastwards, and placed Valencia, Alicante, Murcia and the Balearics on orange alert.

“Things remain unclear, but we expect the isolated depression at high levels to continue its progress east, bringing rain and uncertainty to a large part of the peninsula and the Balearics,” it said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A CCTV image shows cars stranded on the flooded M40 ring road in Madrid. Photograph: Dgt Handout/EPA

“Strong or very strong and persistent squalls and storms are likely in the Valencia region, Murcia and the western part of the Balearics.”

Aemet said the stormy weather would continue until Wednesday morning, when the depression would move towards northern Italy.

An Aemet spokesman said that while such a weather phenomenon was more commonly seen in the autumn months, it did sometimes bring hail and heavy rain in August.

“What happened yesterday is that the Madrid area, which bore the brunt of it, isn’t a region that’s very accustomed to these levels of precipitation,” Rubén del Campo said.

“It’s normally the Mediterranean regions that get the most torrential rain. But it does sometimes happen and we saw very intense rain and hail in Arganda del Rey.”

Del Campo said it was clear that higher sea and air temperatures provided more energy and more fuel for more intense storms when the atmospheric conditions are right.

He added: “It’s very difficult to say that what happened in Madrid yesterday was down to climate change, but we are living in a situation where there’s no doubt that these higher temperatures mean there’s more water vapour in the atmosphere – and that’s the fuel that feeds the storms. That’s a fact.”