A woman protects herself from the snow, this Monday in Teruel, where the minimum was -6°. Antonio García (EFE)
The meteorological winter says goodbye this Tuesday with 11 communities ―Aragón, Asturias, Baleares, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Catalonia, Galicia, Navarra, the Basque Country, La Rioja and the Valencian Community― on alert for cold, snow, rain, wind or bad sea due to the scourge of the Mediterranean storm
Juliette
, the tenth major storm of the season, and a mass of very cold air coming from high latitudes.
The worst is concentrated in the Balearic Islands, for the second consecutive day under red warning, the maximum of a scale of three, due to snowfall of about 40 centimeters from 400 meters and even lower levels in the Tramuntana mountains of Mallorca, in the north of the island.
Although the situation will continue to be adverse, "the snow level will begin to rise at the last minute to 900 or 1,000 meters," explains Rubén Del Campo, spokesman for the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
Below this height, "it will rain intensely and locally with hail" and there is a yellow warning, the lowest level, due to the risk of 60 liters per square meter accumulating in 12 hours in Mallorca.
There is also a red warning in that area and in the north and northeast of the island for waves that can exceed eight meters in significant height —the average of the upper third of the highest waves for 20/30 minutes— and a maximum height of up to 15 In those same areas there is an orange warning, the second level, for winds of more than 90 kilometers per hour.
In the rest of Majorca and in Menorca they have an orange warning due to rough seas, and in Ibiza and Formentera,
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The 'Juliette' storm hits Mallorca and leaves overflowing torrents and power outages
In the rest of the country, a strong wind will blow from the northeast and snowfall will continue to fall at very low levels in the northern third, where two to five centimeters of snow may accumulate, occasionally a little more, starting at 400 or 500 meters in the Cantabrian communities, the north of Castilla y León, Navarra and La Rioja, where there is a yellow warning.
Catalonia has an orange warning due to rough seas, with waves of four to six meters, which is yellow in the Valencian Community, and the wind that whips both communities places them in a yellow warning, which also affects Aragon, with gusts between 90 and 70 kilometers per time according to the zones.
In addition, there was a yellow warning until the early hours for minimums of -8 in Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, the Valencian Community, Andalusia, Aragon, La Rioja, Catalonia, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra and Galicia.
“Daytime temperatures will rise throughout the country, a rise will be notable in the east of the Peninsula.
Even so, in many points in the north they will not go from 6° to 8°”, predicts Del Campo.
This past dawn, abnormally low temperatures have been recorded, with the mercury reaching up to -15.8ºC in Molina de Aragón.
The negative temperature anomalies will continue, although today with a significant rise in the maximum in the eastern half of the peninsula.
pic.twitter.com/8vEMLtJGfV
– AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) February 28, 2023
The storm has so far left "very significant records" of cold, such as -16° minimum last morning in Molina de Aragón (Guadalajara), one of the peaks of the Spanish ice triangle, details Del Campo.
Very low temperatures have also been measured in the Aragonese Iberian system, with -11° in Calamocha (Teruel) and -10° in Daroca (Zaragoza), other locations in the same icy triangle.
"These values are 13° and 11°, respectively, below the normal for the time," the expert points out.
In the rest of the populated areas of the country, the minimums have oscillated between -4° and -7° below the usual, "very cold temperatures to be on the verge of meteorological spring", which begins on March 1.
The snow made an appearance on Monday in coastal areas of the northern half, such as San Sebastián, and of the Mediterranean, such as Barcelona, where the most intense snowfall fell since March 2018, and towns on the Tarragona coast, where it had not snowed since 2018. But the most notable were the snowfalls in Mallorca, where the level was only 100 meters and more than one meter of snow accumulated at 800 meters of altitude in points in the north of the island, "an extraordinary snowfall ”.
During the early morning, the wind has also been very strong in the archipelago, with gusts that have exceeded 117 kilometers per hour in Capdepera (Mallorca).
Intense winds also blew in the mountainous areas of the Peninsula, such as in Alto del León (Madrid), where they have exceeded 105 kilometers per hour.
Cold and frosty inside
On Wednesday spring will begin with “really cold” values, with lows below -8°/-10° zero in mountain areas and also in the central páramos.
Frosts will be widespread throughout the interior, something already "rare at the beginning of March", with minimums between 5° and 10° below normal for the time.
In most of the Peninsula, the highs will also be cold and may even drop a bit in the central area.
Again, in a few areas of the middle the 8° or 10° maximum will be exceeded.
The snowfall will appear above 200 meters or occasionally even below, in eastern Galicia, inland Asturias, inland Cantabria, north of Castilla y León, and they are not ruled out at low levels in the Basque Country and north of Navarra .
There may also be some showers in the Levante area and in the Balearic Islands, with a snow level that will be around 500 or 600 meters in that area.
Thursday morning will again be very cold, with values similar to those of the previous day, although daytime temperatures will gradually begin to recover.
Looking ahead to the weekend, values around normal for the dates are already expected.
However, night temperatures will continue to be low, with frosts that, although they will lose intensity, will continue to occur in large areas of the interior and will still be strong in mountain areas.
In general, the minimum will continue throughout the week between 5° and 10° below normal in areas of the center and north of the Peninsula.
The thermal amplitude will be significant over the weekend, with differences of more than 20° between day and night in areas of Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha and Aragón.
As for the rains, the second half of the week will be generally dry, at most with some weak precipitation in the eastern Cantabrian Sea and some possible isolated showers in the Balearic Islands and in the Mediterranean area, with the snow level at 500 meters on Thursday. and on Friday.
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