The storm has covered a large part of the Peninsula in a white blanket, forcing the closure of hundreds of roads in recent days.
Worst affected has been Madrid, where the UME rescued over a thousand drivers on Friday night who were stuck in their vehicles, caught in the unprecedented snowfall that all but closed down the capital.
The storm also forced the suspension of the Cercanías commuter rail service in the capital as well as the AVE from Madrid to Valencia
Barajas airport was also closed with its flights diverted to other airports
The storm Filomena hit the country with such intensity that ten provinces were put on red alert due to the intense cold and snow storm that continued for much of the weekend.
In the province of Valencia the snow reached heights of 750 metres in the north and 800 in the south. While in Alicante the snow could be found at heights above 1,000 metres.
The Generalitat Valenciana closed 57 roads to traffic on Saturday and ordered the use of chains mandatory and another 85 roads.
In addition, the ‘112 Comunitat Valenciana’ registered 1,462 calls for 1,111 incidents due to snow in the Valencian territory.
Despite the emergency warnings, many Valencians still took to the roads to find the snow, which caused problems in the Sierra de Aitana, just west of Benidorm, where 300 vehicles blocked the CV-770, complicating the tasks of the snowplows in the area.
But the storms were not bad news for everybody as they left up to 40 litres per square meter of rain in the orchards and fields of the Vega Baja. Quite a “blessing” according to farmers of Bajo Segura who have been months with very little rainfall after a very dry autumn and winter.
The cold has also been welcomed, without the intense frosts. Citrus fruits, which are responsible for much of the agricultural landscape, needed the rainwater and the cold so that they will develop and bloom with more vigour in the spring.
However as the snow now moves away, forecasters are predicting that a cold wave will lead to a “sharp drop” in temperatures as of Monday, lasting much of the week and bringing heavy frosts to the area with lows below -10 degrees in mountain areas.
Main image: The Embalse de La Risca, Murcia, was completey frozen over
