The storm leaves a violent hailstorm in Tarragona

BarcelonaTarragona suffered this Thursday afternoon the brunt of the storm affecting the country. A violent hailstorm left rarely seen images in the city, with strong gusts of wind and large hailstones. The most intense rains lasted a few minutes, but they were enough for the water to flow down streets in El Serrallo such as Sant Pere and Gravina. Furthermore, lines R14, R15, and RT-1 were cut between Móra la Nova and Reus due to the rain. It also affected a lane of the AP-7 heading north at the height of Tarragona, which had to be closed due to falling trees on the road and caused a five-kilometer tailback.

The Meteorological Service of Catalonia has issued a violent weather alert 6 out of 6 warning of the risk of hailstones larger than two centimeters in diameter, wind gusts of more than 25 meters per second, squalls, tornadoes, or waterspouts. Given the intensity of the storm, Civil Protection has called for extreme precautions, especially when traveling, and for people not to cross flooded areas. Between 5 PM and 6:30 PM, the Firefighters received 129 calls for storms, of which 107 were in the emergency region of Tarragona, and 74 in the city of Tarragona.

The majority of incidents were fallen trees and branches, small floods, and sparking cables. Renfe has established an alternative bus service for the R15 line between Móra la Nova and Reus. The 112 telephone line had received a total of 373 calls by 7 PM, which generated 259 cases related to the rainfall episode. 70% of these came from Tarragona, and 10% from Baix Camp. The meteorological forecast had already warned that the Atlantic disturbance located off the coasts of Portugal and Galicia would send a front that would generate unstable weather in Catalonia from midday this Monday, with locally intense storms accompanied by large hail.

Before the storm reached Tarragona, the front of storms accompanied by hail had already affected fruit crops in various municipalities of Segrià such as Almenar, Corbins, Albatàrrec and Lleida city, in addition to points in Cerdanya such as Llívia and Puigcerdà. This is the most virulent hailstorm of the season, both in terms of the size of the hail —in some cases more than two centimeters in diameter— and the affected area.