Spanish newspapers reported that $0 litres of rain per square metre fell within one hour in Alicante last Wednesday afternoon causing the Costa Blanca airport to close for a while.Power lines were brought down,a woman was swept to her death in her car,near Torre Pacheco in Murcia ,there was flooding in many places bringing traffic to a standstill.
Torrevieja seemed to miss it all but in Murcia ,Alicante,Denia and Javea the heavens opened.This gave everyone a taster of just what a gota fria would do when and if it does.Elche,near Alicante was also badly hit ,freezing hailstones caused part of the A-70 to close for a while.Local crops,cars,windows and shutters were also damaged.In Javea a roof and windows of a restaurant were ripped out by a tornado,which then ran along the beach.A few people were injured and most were very shocked by the event.
Because of the very hot summer the weather experts did predict the possibility of a wet autumn and a gota fria.Torrevieja experienced its last small gota fria in 2003 and there after they have implemented a training programme for their emergency services.That particular event left 90 litres of rain fall over a square metre as water and ice fell on the town.The Proteccion Civil have not forgotten that and are constantly reviewing their plans to deal with a similar occurance should it happen again.
