People in central Spain are experiencing severe freezes that follow heavy snow at the weekend, resulting in treacherous conditions.
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| Central Spain records temperatures of -25 degrees Celsius after a snowstorm |
At least seven people have died from the weather - the last two homeless victims were in Barcelona.
#Iberia temps at 7am, 12/01 - wow, Molina de Aragón seems to have dipped in to the Arctic this morning reporting a freezing -25C 🥶and with -16C in Teruel, this in contrast to a much warmer South coast with Fuengirola & Motril 8C and Adra at 9C. pic.twitter.com/dzvHgOB853
— MeteoGib (@MeteoGib) January 12, 2021
The temperature dropped to -25 ° C (-13 ° F) in Molina de Aragon and Teruel, in the mountains east of Madrid - the coldest night in Spain in at least 20 years.
The deep snow left by the storm Philomena turned into ice, disrupting transportation. There was an extraordinary amount of snow and ice in Spain, where the winters are usually mild.
Spanish Siberia
Molina de Aragon, where the coldest temperature was recorded overnight, is 197 kilometers (122 miles) northeast of Madrid. It lived up to the nickname "Spanish Siberia".
"We'll get this cold for a few more days, but we're all cooperating," local woman Yuli Asensio told BBC correspondent Jay Hedjikwe.
"Daily life is difficult," she added. "It snowed heavily, entry to homes and roads were closed. Some elderly people fell."
In addition to the two deaths in Barcelona, at least 5 others have been identified as having died from the cold: two in Madrid, two in Malaga, and one in Zaragoza.
• In pictures: January's unusual climate in Europe
The temperature overnight in Madrid itself dropped to -16 ° C, and on Monday the capital's hospitals - already under great pressure due to Covid-19 .
Medical sources told El Mundo daily that there were 1,200 fractures on Monday in hospitals in the Madrid region, due to accidents on the ice - an average of 50 hours.
Spanish media reported that the blackout caused the suspension of the high-speed train line between Madrid and Barcelona, but that service has now resumed.
Many commuter train services were also disrupted due to the inclement weather.
Flights at Madrid-Barajas airport were suspended over the weekend, but have gradually resumed, albeit with significant backlog and delays.
The Spanish daily El Pais says that the danger posed by the icy road conditions has prompted what it described as a "colossal effort, which is almost comparable to a miserable reality."
The paper reports that 1,300 snow removal vehicles are now operational and within 24 hours have managed to push snow off 12,100 km of roads, to keep them free of ice.
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