MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s capital, Madrid, and much of the neighboring region, Castilla-La Mancha, were on high alert on Friday for what meteorologists expect to be the biggest blizzard in decades caused by the Filomena storm.
These events are rare in the region and tend to be detrimental to daily life and mobility, arriving at a time when people are returning home after the Christmas and New Year holidays. This year, however, there is less traffic than usual due to restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
As the snow started to fall, authorities said that large parks in Madrid, including the famous Retiro next to the Prado Museum, would be closed on Friday afternoon as a precaution.
With snow forecast of up to 20 cm (almost 8 inches) in 24 hours and expected temperatures around zero centigrade for much of the day, the southern region of Madrid, including the capital, is at its highest alert level for the first time since the system was created in 2007.
Ruben del Campo, a spokesman for the State Meteorological Agency, said the city was probably facing the biggest blizzard at least so far in the 21st century.
“Perhaps we would have to go back to the February 1984 or March 1971 blizzard to find similar precedents if the predictions we hope are correct,” he added.
Light snow already covered Madrid on Thursday, a day after Spain recorded the lowest temperature ever recorded in the Iberian Peninsula, at -34.1ºC, in the Pyrenees, to the north.
The storm Filomena is advancing through Spain after reaching the Canary Islands with strong winds and rain.
In Gran Canaria, a ferry with 59 passengers and 17 crew members ran aground Thursday night due to strong winds at the entrance to the port of Agaete.
On Friday, the coast guard was towing the ferry to the port, with passengers and crew still on board, unharmed.
(This story corrects Filomena’s Spanish spelling)
Reporting by Emma Pinedo and Cristina Sanchez, edited by Andrei Khalip and Gareth Jones