A 102-year-old woman has died and emergency services have rescued approximately 90 people in the Spanish town of Madrigueras, located in the province of Albacete, after sudden flash flooding inundated the entire municipality.
According to a statement from the regional government, the town recorded 142 liters of rain per square meter, prompting a massive emergency response. Authorities activated the Adverse Meteorological Risk Plan (METEOCAM) at operational level 1 to coordinate the rescue efforts. In the home where the elderly victim was found, the floodwaters had risen to a height of one meter.
Throughout Friday afternoon and into the early night, emergency crews carried out around 90 rescues, primarily assisting residents trapped in homes affected by the rapid accumulation of water. The regional government noted that its services received numerous calls from local residents who were frightened and unsure of how to act during the emergency.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his condolences on social media, writing on X: "All my love to the relatives of the woman who has died as a result of the flooding, and all our support and solidarity to the affected residents." Emiliano García-Page, the president of Castilla-La Mancha, visited Madrigueras on Saturday to assess the damage, where the Civil Guard has been deployed to conduct clean-up operations.
The severe weather began causing disruptions overnight and on Friday morning in Tarragona and Castellón, with the most severe impacts concentrated in the Lower Ebro area. By Friday afternoon, orange alerts were active in Tarragona, the Valencia region, the Balearic Islands, the Region of Murcia, and the provinces of Almería, Granada, and Albacete due to the risk of strong storms and hail. The unstable weather pattern is spreading across the Iberian Peninsula and is forecast to persist throughout the weekend.
On Saturday, torrential rain prompted a red alert along the Tarragona coast, with heavy downpours also expected in Extremadura, Salamanca, the Central System, and Aragon. By Saturday afternoon, showers and thunderstorms are projected to reach almost any part of the peninsula. Some areas, including the Iberian System, the south-eastern sierras, the Pyrenees, the north-western quadrant, the Balearic Islands, and the Mediterranean coast, are likely to experience intense storms accompanied by hail. Rainfall is less likely in western Galicia and the Canary Islands. Temperatures are forecast to rise in Galicia, Aragon, Navarre, the Basque Country, and the Canary Islands, while falling in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and inland Spain.
The unstable conditions will continue into Sunday, with widespread rain, thunderstorms, and the potential formation of a DANA—a slow-moving, high-altitude low-pressure system that can trigger torrential rainfall over the western half of mainland Spain. While this system does not guarantee heavier rain than what was observed in Tarragona or Castellón, it makes similar severe weather more likely to repeat or spread. Only the Galician coast is expected to see mostly clear or slightly cloudy skies.
During the early hours of Sunday, heavy showers and storms could affect the Cantabrian coast, the Balearic Islands, and Catalonia. Later in the day, locally heavy showers are expected to spread across central and northern Spain, with lower chances of rain in the southern third of the country. The Canary Islands will remain largely unaffected. Temperatures across the country will see little change from Saturday, keeping the weekend feeling relatively warm.
