Extremely heavy rainfall hits Spain, Costa Blanca hit by heaviest April rain since 1946

A severe storm affecting parts of Spain from April 18 to 22, 2019 dropped extremely heavy rain, produced strong winds and waves up to 3 m (9.8 feet).

The worst affected was Costa Blanca, over 200 km (124 miles) of Mediterranean coastline in the province of Alicante on the southeastern coast of Spain, where weather authorities declared red alert for rain.

Nearly 400 people had to be evacuated, mostly from Benidorm and Torrevieja, after heavy rain turned roads into rivers, submerging cars and flooding homes and businesses.

Javea recorded 248.4 mm (9.77 inches) of rain in just 24 hours, Barx 165 mm (6.49 inches), Pined 148 mm (5.82 inches), La Vall de Gallinera 144.8 mm (5.7 inches), Oliva 143.5 mm (5.64 inches) and Miramar 110.4 mm (4.34 inches).

Torrevieja saw 200 mm (7.87 inches) of rain in 48 hours.

Heavy rain was accompanied by wind gusts of up to 100 km/h (62 mph) and waves up to 3 m (9.84 feet) high.

President of the Association of Spanish Geographers (AGE), Jorge Olcina, told Diario Informacion that rain hasn't fallen as much and as widely distributed throughout the Iberian southeast since April 19, 1946.

The rains have come in handy to close the deficit we accumulated due to really dry start of the year, he said. "The fields of the whole province and the region of Murcia have been well soaked, which guarantees at least a couple of irrigations for the seasonal harvests."

Alicante firefighters said they performed more than 300 interventions due to trapped vehicles, traffic accidents, landslides and downed trees.

Several people were injured but there are no reports of casualties.

Featured image: Floods in Javea, Spain – April 2019. Credit: GVA 112CV