The warm, wet and very weird weather

ALMERIA Province registered what was probably the strangest year in history for weather in 2016, with an all-time low for rainfall followed by surprisingly violent storms.

Between October 2015 and October 2016 the Almeria City area, for example, registered just 53 litres of rain per square metre, beating the 1912 record of 54 litres per m2 in a 12-month period.

As experts announced that it had been at least a century since the province had seen so little rain, on November 19 the situation changed drastically as the heavens opened. In just three days the total amount of rain surpassed that registered in the previous year and most of the area remained waterlogged almost up to Christmas.

Over two weeks Almeria went from one record to another as many areas of the province registered the greatest amount of rainfall since records began. In the Alto Andarax area, Fondon and Laujar collected 300 litres per square metre while Nijar, usually a dry area, registered almost 260 litres and Almeria City 178 litres.

Long-term forecasts for the winter lead to believe that there is plenty more rain to come, too. Weather experts are predicting a wetter than usual season for much of the Mediterranean coast due to predominant winds from the Atlantic and also believe that temperatures will be warmer than usual apart from the occasional cold front from the north.