The easterly winds will bring rain and heavy snow until Saturday night
Locally, rainfall has already exceeded 140 mm since Christmas Day at noon.
BarcelonaThe easterly winds have strengthened on this Sant Esteve day, bringing heavy rain to many regions, snowfall blanketing the eastern Pyrenees, and rough seas that have forced the closure of beach areas in some municipalities along the central and northern coast. The highest rainfall totals of this event have already exceeded 100 liters per square meter.2And there are still many hours of rain ahead (you'll find more details at the end of this report). If you're hoping to see some sunshine, you'll have to wait until Sunday or Monday, when the skies will finally clear and the downpour will finally end, making this second half of December one of the wettest in recent decades.
Saturday: the storm refuses to leave
On Saturday, heavy rainfall will continue in some areas, especially along the coast and in the eastern half of the country, where locally rainfall will again exceed 50 or 100 liters per square meter. A maritime storm will gradually weaken, but will still be significant along the coast. The rain will also affect the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, as the low-pressure system moves south across the peninsula and into northern Morocco. All of this will be accompanied by continued heavy snowfall in the eastern Pyrenees, with accumulations exceeding one to one and a half meters in this part of the mountain range. Rivers and streams will maintain very high flows due to the soil's limited capacity to retain so much water in such a short time.
In this regard, the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya) has issued warnings for various weather phenomena. Rainfall accumulation could exceed 200 l/m² in 24 hours in the northeast of the region, while a yellow warning for heavy rainfall is in effect for the entire Catalan coast and pre-coastal areas. A yellow warning for rough seas has also been issued for the entire coastline, with waves expected to reach over 2.5 meters in height, and wind only triggers an alert for the central coast. Finally, the snow warning only affects Berguedà, Cerdanya, and, at a higher level of danger, Ripollès, where more than 50 centimeters of new snow are expected to accumulate above 2,000 meters.
Sunday: opening of clearings
The weather is expected to improve significantly towards the end of the weekend, with rainfall weakening and becoming confined to the far south, coastal areas, and especially the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands. Sunshine will increase in Asturias, although it won't be a sunny day; the weather will be somewhat milder. Sea conditions will be much more normal along the Catalan coast, but still somewhat rough off the coasts of Valencia and Castellón.
Provisional balance of the storm
The easterly winds, which began on Christmas Day, have brought rainfall totals that, by the afternoon of Sant Esteve (St. Stephen's Day), had already exceeded 100 l/m² in some parts of the country, such as Cantonigròs (148 l/m²), Viladrau (127 l/m²), Molló (110 l/m²), and Darnius-Boadella (89 l/m²). The rain has affected the entire country, although totals have generally ranged between 20 and 50 l/m² in the eastern half and along the coast, and between 1 liter and 5-10 l/m² in the western part of the country and the western Pyrenees. This precipitation, which has been in solid form at mid and high elevations of the Pyrenees, where it accumulates a thickness of more than half a meter in some cases, is accompanied by waves that at the Begur cape buoy have reached 9.75 meters.