Mallorca narrowly escapes severe storms
Locals and tourists can breathe a sigh of relief: The island has escaped the severe storms that have been raging, especially over the Mediterranean. While there have been some flooding in certain areas of the Balearic island, the flight traffic has also been affected.
The feared heavy storm has passed by the holiday island of Mallorca. Most of the rain fell over the sea around the Balearic island during the night. On land, there were only moderate rainfall and minor flooding. The national weather service Aemet lowered the storm warning from the highest level red to orange.
Originally, the worst part of the thunderstorm front was supposed to sweep over the holiday island in the night from Wednesday to Thursday and in the morning hours. Aemet had not ruled out that up to 180 liters of precipitation per square meter could fall within a few hours. However, most of the rain fell into the sea. Until 3 pm, the alarm level red was still in effect in the north of Mallorca, followed by a brief warning level orange and then the warning level yellow, which warned of rain and thunderstorms for Friday.
The fear of a severe storm on the island was so great at times that the Balearic government canceled most of the public festivals and urged people to stay indoors as much as possible.
Delays in flight traffic
As was the case with the heavy rain in June, the rainfall was unevenly distributed across the island. While only a few drops fell in the island's capital Palma at first, the towns of Sóller and Port de Sóller in the northwest of the island were hit harder. There, water rushed through some streets and the police had to rescue ten people from an apartment where the water was already knee-high and the door would not open, as reported by local newspapers. Later, it also rained in Palma, but only briefly.
In the meantime, Mallorca tourists had to be patient, especially when arriving and departing. There were hours-long delays and some flight cancellations at Palma airport. With the improvement in the weather, flight operations also gradually returned to normal.
The Hurricane that was expected to cause significant damage to Mallorca significantly weakened, only resulting in moderate rainfall and minor flooding on land. Despite this, some flights to and from Palma Airport were delayed or cancelled due to the impact of the Hurricane.
