A final goodbye to the rainy season to start the month of October.
The situation will clearly improve in the Valencian Country and especially in the Balearic Islands.
Torrential rains hit the Pitiusas Islands hard yesterday, especially the island of Ibiza. The heavy downpours left more than 250 liters per square meter of rainfall in the town of Ibiza in just a few hours, an extraordinary figure and a record for the capital. All this caused two serious injuries, many incidents and flooding. (You'll find the most important data and images from the rainy season at the end of this report.) The storm will be history today, Wednesday, October 1, as the downpours will subside and calm, sunny weather will prevail in most areas, including Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community. There will only be minor exceptions.
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Wednesday: much calmer
October is starting much calmer than September ended. The intense rains of the last few days will disappear completely from the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, with only a few morning showers remaining in the Alicante region and south of the Valencian Community, which will eventually disappear. However, there will be some low clouds in coastal and pre-coastal areas of Barcelona and nearby areas, and scattered showers or sprinkles can be expected in the afternoon inland northeast and on the island of Mallorca. Local and weak weather conditions will occur. There will also be significant morning fog inland areas.
The Tramuntana wind will blow throughout the day in the Empordà region, and the Mistral wind will blow until early afternoon in the Ebro region. Temperatures will remain similar, with cool mornings and mild midday. Many highs will again hover between 20 and 25°C, lower in mountainous areas and higher in the West and south, where the weather will be warmer. Temperatures will rise sharply in the Valencian Community and the Pitiusas due to the presence of sunshine after so much cloud cover in recent days.
Strength short-term calm
On Thursday, there will be more low clouds along the coast and pre-coast, which may leave some scattered light rain or sprinkles, especially between Barcelona and Camp de Tarragona. Initially, there will be little sunshine. The sun will predominate inland and in the Pyrenees. Temperatures will drop where there are more clouds, with cooler conditions. The calm will continue until Saturday, with maximum temperatures set to rise.
However, we are awaiting a change in the weather, which on Sunday could increase instability and significantly lower temperatures. A front from the north, associated with a British storm, will cause some showers and thunderstorms in the Pyrenees and the northeast. The situation is still somewhat uncertain, but we will have to continue to determine the exact weather conditions.
Rainfall forecast for the storm
The storm hit the Pitiusas Islands yesterday, Tuesday, especially the island of Ibiza, where more than 250 l/m² accumulated throughout the day at the official Aemet station in the capital. This is a new record, as never before on record has so much rain fallen in a single day in the town of Ibiza. Historic downpours caused two serious injuries in Ibiza, flooding, and numerous incidents. It also rained heavily in Formentera, with more than 110 l/m², while in the south of Mallorca, there were also some less significant downpours in the early hours of the morning.
The heavy rain storm began on Sunday in Terres de l'Ebre and continued on Monday in this area and in the Valencian Community, with real downpours, historic records, and many incidents. Between Sunday and Monday, the rain left more than 100 or 200 l/m², especially in Baix Ebre and Montsià, but the extraordinary 306 l/m² accumulated in Amposta stands out. The meteorological stations in this municipality, L'Aldea, and the Alfacs recorded Monday as the wettest day in the more than 30 years of record keeping.
It has also rained heavily in the Valencian Country. On the coast and pre-coast of Valencia and Castellón, rainfall has accumulated over 100 l/m² in many places, but locally it has reached 200 l/m², such as in La Safor. Most of the rain fell on Monday, as Tuesday's rainfall was ultimately less intense and widespread than expected. Yesterday afternoon, Aemet had already deactivated all alerts in the area. On Monday, the Saleta ravine in l'Horta Sud, one of the areas most affected during last year's DANA, overflowed its banks. However, this situation was nothing like the catastrophe of a year ago.