Spanish holiday resorts were being battered by heavy rain and high winds today as an August heatwave succumbed to storms.
Bad weather caused flight cancellations and delays in Ibiza and Majorca.
Tornado-style waterspouts were seen off the coast this morning near the Majorcan town of Santanyi and subsequently Port Adriano, prompting concern from onlookers on dry land about the safety of small boats and jet skis still out at sea.
Eight people were hurt on a yacht that crashed into rocks in Cala Saona in Formentera, six of whom had to be taken to hospital to be treated for their injuries after a dramatic rescue.
Photos from the scene showed the vessel tilting on its side against the rocks as the occupants tried to maintain their balance on deck with their life jackets on.
Several ambulances raced to the scene so the men could be helped off the boat and taken to hospital and a coastguard helicopter was mobilised.
Ibiza and Formentera were the first to be hit by the storms before they moved towards Majorca and Menorca.
Orange weather alert
An orange weather alert had been in place for the islands so the dramatic change in the weather had been predicted.
Council chiefs in Calvia, which covers the popular resort of Magaluf, reacted by suspending local festivities and other outdoors activities which had been programmed for today and tomorrow.
Today as the full storm hit, emergency responders in the holiday destination reported trees had fallen in several streets and said a ray of lightning had caused damage to a police station.
Parts of the Costa Blanca, which includes resorts like Benidorm and Calpe, have also been affected by heavy rain and hail and overnight weather agency Aemet raised the storm alert from yellow to orange with bad weather being predicted to last until Thursday.
Further north, 300 people had to be evacuated from a supermarket in Ontinyent near Valencia when heavy rain caused the partial collapse of its roof.
But as earlier this year, when the Balearic Islands and the Costa Blanca were being battered by bad weather, holidaymakers on the Costa del Sol were still sunning themselves today under blue skies in temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius.
And weathermen are predicting wall-to-wall sunshine and sweltering heat for resorts like Marbella over the next few days.
A summer storm brought chaos to Madrid at the end of June as blue skies gave way to hail, torrential rain and high winds.
Trees were brought down and locals and holidaymakers had to take refuge in bars and shop entrances following the incredible weather change.
Some underground stations in the Spanish capital were affected by flooding with tube trains being delayed.
Stairs leading into Canal Station on the Madrid Metro’s line seven were transformed into a river with astonished onlookers taking selfie videos of the scene.
A fortnight earlier large swathes of eastern Spain and the Balearic Islands were buffeted by torrential rain.
The freak weather led to the suspension of normal operations at Palma Airport in Majorca, with planes diverted to Menorca, Ibiza and Barcelona.
One of the airport’s duty free shops had to close after rain came through the ceiling.
In San Antonio in Ibiza, the gutters overflowed in some parts of the town, leaving holidaymakers having to step over human waste.
The provinces of Murcia and Alicante were also badly affected, with cars swept down streets during flash floods.
Just under a fortnight ago hail and rain sent tourists in Benidorm running for cover in a crazy day of weather in the famous Costa Blanca resort.
Footage of the storm, which lasted around 15 minutes and brought another sweltering day on the Costas to a premature end, showed pellets of ice smashing onto the ground under the grey clouds that appeared out of nowhere to replace the blue sky.
Holidaymakers packed up their belongings and raced off Levante Beach in Benidorm as the storm came in.
Other Irish and British tourists were pictured dancing in the rain with pints in their hand as the freak weather caught them out on pub terraces.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
