Snow and rain return the country to the middle of winter | Spain

Almost widespread snowfall and rain have returned Spain to the middle of winter in the first weekend of March. All the autonomous communities and Melilla have woken up on alert due to rainfall, strong gusts of wind or intense waves in coastal areas.

The person responsible for the instability is a powerful Atlantic front that is crossing the country from northwest to southeast and that is leaving in its wake completely covered skies and widespread rainfall throughout the peninsula, in addition to low, although not extreme, temperatures.

Twelve autonomous communities and the city of Melilla will be on warning this Sunday for wind, waves, rain, snow or avalanches, according to the prediction of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet). Locally persistent rainfall is expected in the Pyrenees and significant accumulations of snow in mountain areas of the north and center of the peninsula and nearby areas, and intervals of strong wind with very strong gusts in areas of the coast, in parts of the interior of the country and in the Balearic Islands.

In the center of the peninsula the maximums this Saturday were around 10 degrees, although in the provinces of the Mediterranean coast these values ​​will rise to 20 degrees, and the minimums that were recorded last morning and that will be repeated next night have only dropped from zero in Burgos, León and Palencia. The snow has forced the use of chains in the ports of Cotos and Navacerrada. In Aragón, the A-2606 roads between Panticosa and El Balneario and the A-139 in Benasque, both in the province of Huesca, have been closed to traffic due to the risk of avalanches.

Rain, snowfall, waves and strong wind hit the country after several days of flooding in the northern third due to the flooding of some rivers, and especially the Ebro as it passes through the communities of Navarra, La Rioja and Aragón , although the situation tends to normalize. The crest of the flood has already surpassed the main cities and riverside towns and has reached the Mequinenza reservoir in Zaragoza, so the Government of Aragon has decided to lower the emergency level (from one to two) and the troops of the Military Unit of Emergencies (UME) who have collaborated in the area in recent days have demobilized.

The Ulibarri reservoir in Alavés continues this Saturday, for the third consecutive day, releasing water -about 39 cubic meters per second-, but no problems or flooding have been recorded on the banks of the Zadorra river into which the waters of this reservoir are poured. The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation has now ended the episode of Ebro floods recorded in recent days in the community of La Rioja and all the stations that measure capacity are recovering normal values.

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Heavy snowfall caused some outages to the road network. For example, it forced the closure of traffic on the A-2 in the province of Soria. Traffic was interrupted at night between kilometers 140 and 144 between the towns of Benamira and Esteras de Medinaceli. Traffic was also closed on a 15 kilometer stretch in Toledo on the highway between Navamorcuende and El Real de San Vicente. Traffic was interrupted for trucks and articulated vehicles at other points of the road network due to adverse weather on secondary roads in Asturias and Aragon.

Before the weather forecasts scheduled for this Saturday, all the autonomous communities and the city of Melilla have woken up with orange alerts – significant risk – or yellow – risk – due to snowfall, heavy rain, strong gusts of wind or strong waves. In seven communities (Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Galicia, Cantabria, Castilla y León and Madrid) the warnings are yellow level due to snowfall in some cases and the strong waves that will be recorded on the coast in others. The most significant snowfalls that have led to the activation of meteorological alerts are recorded in the communities of Aragón, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Galicia, Madrid, Navarra and La Rioja.

The storm will not subside this Sunday. Twelve autonomous communities and the city of Melilla are on notice due to inclement weather. Andalusia will be under an orange warning for high risk of waves and a yellow warning for wind. Aragon will have a yellow warning for rain, wind, avalanches and an orange risk for snowfall. In Asturias, Castilla y León and Madrid, the yellow warning for snowfall remains in place, with no forecast of a worsening of the weather. The Balearic Islands will have a yellow warning for both gusts of wind and waves. Cantabria, for its part, will only have a yellow warning for waves.

Catalonia faces Sunday with an orange warning for waves and wind, and there will also be a yellow warning for rain and snowfall. Galicia will also have a yellow warning for snowfall and waves. The alert in Murcia will be orange for waves and yellow for wind, while Navarra will activate the orange warning for snow and yellow for avalanches. Finally, the Valencian Community will have an orange warning for wind and a yellow warning for waves, which will also be considered in Melilla.