70 years ago: waking up to snow on Costa del Sol

In 1954 on the night of February 2 and 3, it snowed in Malaga, something that had not happened since 1885.

2024 has begun with the warmest January since records began in 1880, so it is hard to imagine snow in Malaga city. But it did 70 years ago. January 1954 ended with the arrival of a cold and dry front from the east that froze the country. The Siberian cold wave advanced to the south of the peninsula from the Pyrenees, which, together with a low pressure front formed in the Gulf of Cadiz, meant that on the afternoon of February 2 the first snowfalls arrived in many areas of Andalucia including Huelva, Seville and Cadiz, which were also the last snowfalls in those cities in living memory.

In the city of Malaga it was not until almost midnight on February 2 to 3 that the first flakes fell. As most of the snow fell in the early hours of the morning and set in the early hours of the morning, it was at dawn on February 3 1954 that the people of Malaga became aware of the phenomenon, seeing the city covered in snow. On that freezing day the temperature reached a minimum of 6 degrees below zero.

“They say it’s snowing. If you want to see it, go out into the street”

The most remembered quote of that winter of 1954 was undoubtedly uttered by the Radio Nacional announcer, who said: “They say it’s snowing. If you want to see it, go out into the street”. It wasn’t until half past eleven at night that the real snowflakes arrived, which many Malaga residents had only seen in films.

But it did not only snow in the capital. The white blanket covered the whole of the Costa del Sol; in Marbella, Torremolinos and Estepona the storm was intense. And, in the interior of the Guardalhorce Valley, such as in Coín, Álora, the accumulated snow reached almost a metre in height.

The snow caused damage: the collapse of the Poniente garage in Malaga, when part of the wall of the premises collapsed; the big top of the popular Teatro-Circo Chino de Manolita Chen, which had been set up in the Pasillo de Santo Domingo, also collapsed. The greatest damage was to crops: the citrus, almond and vegetable harvests were lost.