Orange alert

Severe summer storms on the Balearic Islands

Storms on Mallorca (archive image 2018)

(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

A severe storm is currently raging in the Spanish Mediterranean region. An area of low pressure has brought heavy rain showers, thunderstorms, hail and squalls to Mallorca, Ibiza and other areas.

A video was posted from Ibiza, for example, showing a ship in very heavy swell. It is not advisable to be at sea at the moment. Hopefully everyone is safe and well, commented the Ibzia Dance Music Community on the X platform. According to media reports, the Pitiusan islands of Formentera and Ibiza were hit by storms on Wednesday morning. Numerous boats were pushed ashore. In La Savina, the wind reached speeds of up to 117 km/h.

Here you can see a video from Formentera.

More than 40 flights canceled
On Mallorca, the effects were felt later in the morning: 44 flights were canceled in Palma until the afternoon due to the weather, almost all other connections had delays, some of them long - often between four and five hours. The first gusts of wind were spotted around midday.

The rain flooded the city at times, but subsided after a short time. At around 12.40 pm, hail, heavy rain and wind followed. The fire department had to be called out again and again to clear fallen trees or pump out flooded cellars. However, no major damage was initially reported.

Here you can see a photo of the region on Wednesday evening.

Red alert for Thursday
On Wednesday, the national weather service Aeemet issued the second-highest orange alert for the Balearic Islands and parts of the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Murcia, Valencia and Catalonia. For the north-east of Mallorca, the office even issued a red alert for Thursday. Up to 180 liters of precipitation are expected to fall within a few hours.

Air traffic on Mallorca is likely to be disrupted until Friday. It is rare for a red alert to be issued in the area. However, the change in weather in mid-August is common. At this time, bathing weather alternates with sometimes heavy thunderstorms.