Hail, high winds and flash floods strike Valencia
Wednesday, September 14, 2016 @ 6:34 PM
FLASH flooding hit Valencia yesterday (Tuesday) evening out of the blue after months with barely a drop of rain and weeks of soaring temperatures.
State meteorological agency AEMET reported around 38 litres per square metre of rain within the space of an hour (3.8 centimetres, or one-and-a-half inches) of which 30 litres per square metre (three centimetres, or just over an inch) fell within the first half-hour.
Strong winds, thunder and lightning came with it, and even a mini-tornado over the El Saler beach.
Two women were injured when tree branches were blown off and landed on them on the C/ Primado Reig, and chunks of rendering fell off the Aqua shopping centre.
Hailstorms and high winds meant tricky landings for planes heading into Valencia airport in the nearby town of Manises, with visibility reduced to four kilometres during the worst of the storm.
The tunnel on the Avenida de Catalunya, heading north out of the city, was shut due to flooding, and the traffic lights on the Avenida del Cid, the westbound exit from the metropolitan area, stopped working.
Storms began in the province of Castellón yesterday afternoon and reached the northern and western parts of the province of Valencia by around 19.00 or 20.00 with what was described as a spectacular downpour.
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