The arrival of Storm Leonardo to Spain’s Andalusia region on Wednesday is forecast to bring as much as 400 litres per square metre, with thousands evacuated, school shut and roads cut off.
Spanish weather agency Aemet placed parts of the southern region of Andalusia under the highest red alert for torrential rain, warning that Storm Leonardo risked triggering floods and landslides.
An “extraordinary amount of rain” was arriving in a region where “the ground is very saturated and riverbeds are already carrying a lot of water” from recent precipitation, AEMET spokesman Rubén del Campo said.
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According to local reports, Cádiz and Málaga will receive up to 400 litres of rainfall per square metre in the next few hours.
More than 3,500 residents were evacuated from flood-prone areas on Tuesday as a precaution, Andalusian emergency services said, reporting more than 650 incidents without substantial damage on Wednesday.
The mayor of the nearby city of Ronda, María Paz Fernández, told public broadcaster RTVE that “the ground can no longer absorb” the constant downpours, speaking of “numerous landslides” in the surrounding rural areas.
Andalusia’s top emergency official, Antonio Sanz, told a press conference that the situation was “very worrying” in the nearby mountainous municipality of Grazalema, where Aemet predicted up to 35 centimetres of rain in 24 hours.
Hundreds of soldiers deployed to assist the rescue services, while all Andalusian schools were closed apart from in the region’s easternmost province of Almería.
State railway company Renfe announced the cancellation of almost all suburban, regional and long-distance trains across Andalusia, with no bus replacement services possible due to the state of roads, some of which were closed.
As of 3pm on Wednesday, no airports in the southern region have had to cancel flights due to the downpour.
There are reports of 3,800 Andalusian households suffering power outages due to the storm. Numerous roads in the Cádiz area have also been cut off to traffic as a precaution.
In October 2024, Spain suffered its deadliest floods in decades with more than 230 people killed, mostly in the eastern region of Valencia.
In neighbouring Portugal, where severe weather killed five people last week, part of the coast was under an orange alert as Leonardo swept in from the Atlantic Ocean.
The emergency services had responded to almost 200 incidents including localised flooding, landslides and falling trees which caused no victims or major damage, the Civil Protection service told AFP.
The Lisbon region and the Algarve in the south were most affected, with the rain and wind predicted to reach peak intensity overnight Wednesday to Thursday.
Scientists say human-driven climate change is making extreme weather events longer, more frequent and more intense.
With additional reporting by Alex Dunham, The Local Spain’s Editor
