Storm Ciarán Set To Hit Spain On Thursday

The State Meteorological Agency, AEMET, has released information about the next Atlantic storm system due to land in Spain this week. The storm, named Ciarán by the British Meteorological Service, is set to bring widespread rainfall and intense winds across the entire Spanish peninsula and the Balearic Islands.

Storm Ciarán is expected to cross the Atlantic from the United Kingdom during the day on Wednesday and start to affect Galicia, the Cantabria area and the western Pyrenees with heavy rain and strong wings, but it will be late Wednesday evening and into Thursday that will see the wet weather and wind spread down through Spain. Only the Southeast of Spain is likely to escape the rains though may still experience stronger than usual gusty winds.

AEMET has forecast that with a mass of colder air riding the back of Storm Ciarán, it is expected that the snow level will drop down to between 1000 and 1200 metres in the mountain systems to the North of Spain, which may see the first significant snowfalls of the season.

The wind will reach its zenith on Thursday with gusts likely to be widespread throughout the Spanish mainland and the Balearic Islands, being especially intense in mountain areas and in the Cantabrian area, where they may exceed 100 km. Friday will see frost in mountainous areas and the rainfall will pull back towards the North of the country.

⚠️Nota informativa: la #BorrascaCiaran, muy profunda y de alto impacto, provocará en la Península y Baleares un temporal con vientos intensos, lluvias abundantes y nieve en las montañas.
Accede a la información completa en este enlace👉https://t.co/Vb6bRJNMCN pic.twitter.com/RUEzRhbj1F

— AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) October 30, 2023

🌀💣🌦️Es probable que la #BorrascaCiaran sufra un proceso de ciclogénesis explosiva, un concepto del que seguro has oído hablar. En este hilo explicamos qué en qué consiste. Básicamente, se trata de una borrasca que se profundiza rápidamente en poco tiempo. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/9Rttw8QqfA

— AEMET Divulga (@AEMET_Divulga) October 30, 2023

X account @Meteoavila2 has posted a list of rainfall data for October in the Avila area showing that it has borne the recent brunt of bad weather and that water courses appear to be running high.

🌧 DATOS DE PRECIPITACIÓN
👉Del 1 al 30 de Octubre (#Avila)
‼️Laguna Grande 1422,9 mm
Piedralaves 600,8 mm
Guisando 598,8 mm
Puerto Pico 573,2 mm
Arenas S.Pedro 512,9 mm
Serranillos 475,4 mm
Mombeltran 460,5 mm
El Arenal 361,4 mm
Candeleda 316 mm
Sotillo 245,6 mm
La Herguijuela… pic.twitter.com/fzHyf9NWLf

— MeteoÁvila (@Meteoavila2) October 30, 2023

Across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom an Amber ‘danger to life’ warning has been issued ahead of Storm Ciarán’s arrival on Wednesday, with 44 flood warnings and 130 flood alerts in place. The Met Office in the UK has warned that parts of Northern Ireland may become cut off with fast-flowing or deep flood water. Although Spain will certainly not experience the full force of Ciarán that the UK will, the Northern end of the country will be dismayed at this latest in a chain of cyclonic storms coming in from the Atlantic.