ALLER – With the arrival of a mass of cold air in northeastern Spain on Friday, showers also returned to the country. However, residents of a high-altitude village awoke on Friday morning to an unusual white world of snow for the month of May.
Part of the Asturias region of northwestern Spain on Friday presented a picture more typical of winter than mid-May. The high-altitude village of La Raya awoke under a heavy layer of snow. Furthermore, it also snowed all day at the nearby mountain pass of Puerto de San Isidro.
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“There were some very hot days and suddenly it snowed today,” says Fernando Cordero, owner of the bar La Braña, located in La Raya, the highest village in Asturias at 1,520 metres, where, in addition to snow, “there was also a lot of fog. “
Near freezing point in the coldest points in Asturias
According to data from Aemet, Pajares recorded the lowest temperature in the region at 6.20 am yesterday, it was 1 degree. Leitariegos (1.1) and Degaña (2.8) were the other two coldest points in Asturias. However, these figures are still far from the national “records”, with up to 5 degrees below zero in the Pyrenees.
The expectation is that the low temperatures, with a snow depth of around 1,500 metres, will continue until Sunday. Furthermore, rain is expected throughout the weekend at lower elevations. However, the mercury will rise again from Monday and from Wednesday the sun will start to break through the clouds and showers again.
Snow in May in these high elevations is not unusual, but it is noticeable after a season with so little precipitation and an April that was much warmer than normal and numerous temperature records were broken.
Snow also returns to the Pyrenees
It had already been predicted that showers could also turn the world white in the Pyrenees. Yet it was strange for many residents to be confronted with snow in the middle of May. There was a respectable layer of snow in Los Llanos del Hospital. Up to 20 centimetres fell in the highest areas. The Baqueira Beret ski station was also white again.
