See | Heavy rain floods Madrid metro

Part of Spain was placed on weather alert on Tuesday due to a major rain episode affecting the Iberian Peninsula, where there has been sporadic flooding in recent days after months of drought.

• Read more: Italy to provide emergency funds to flood affected areas

• Read more: In pictures | Cyclone Mawar brings ‘devastating’ winds to Guam

According to experts, the heavy rains are too late to solve the severe water shortages that Spain suffers from, especially affecting the southeastern regions, including the provinces of Almeria and Alicante.

Particularly heavy rain fell in Madrid on Monday evening, blocking some roads and delaying several metro lines, affected in places by impressive water intrusions.

The rain episode will continue over the next few days, according to the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet), which on Tuesday kept part of the territory on yellow or orange alert due to the risk of hail, thunderstorms and strong tornadoes.

This should allow for a “significant positive contribution to the lack of rain”, so that Spain has been suffering from a historic drought for several months, with serious consequences for its entire important agricultural sector.

According to experts, this heavy rain – which runs off rather than seeps into the ground – is, however, not enough and too late to end the shortages affecting the country’s aquifers and reservoirs.

According to the Spanish Ministry of Environmental Change, these reservoirs dropped to 47.5% of their capacity in the last week of May, compared to 47.7% in the previous week, nearly 20 points below the average of the past ten years. Time of year (68.1%).

According to Amet, Spain experienced the hottest and driest month in April since weather records began in the country. The heat wave was considered the hottest in Spain’s recent history since 2022.

The situation prompted the government to announce in mid-May an emergency plan of more than two billion euros, mainly aimed at the agricultural sector – water shortages have prompted many farmers to abandon spring sowing, particularly cereals and oilseeds.