Spain hit by record-breaking cold weather after worst snowstorm in decades

At least five people have died as temperatures in central and eastern Spain plummeted as low as minus 25.4 degrees Celsius

Madrid experienced its heaviest snowfall in 50 years, with water disruptions, damaged trees, and hundreds injured from slipping on ice

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Trees damaged by heavy snowfall are seen on a shopping street in central Madrid, after a sub-zero blast hit the country. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 11:42am, 13 Jan 2021Updated: 9:03pm, 13 Jan 2021

Extremely low temperatures, in some areas reaching record-breaking levels, swept central and eastern Spain on Tuesday, with the big freeze complicating efforts to clear countless roads blocked by snow.

With much of the country still blanketed in white following the worst snowstorm in decades, efforts resumed early to clear the streets of snow, ice and fallen trees despite the brutal cold.

At least three people died when Storm Filomena swept through the country at the weekend, and on Tuesday, Barcelona officials confirmed another two people, both homeless, had been found dead, with all signs suggesting they died of hypothermia.

Snow covers the Belagua valley near to Isaba, northern Spain. Photo: AP

“An icy morning with historically low temperatures, clearly far below the seasonal norm across the whole of the country,” Spain’s AEMET weather agency tweeted.

Overnight, temperatures in central and eastern Spain plummeted, reaching as low as minus 25.4 degrees Celsius (minus 13.7 Fahrenheit) in Bello village between Madrid and Barcelona, AEMET said.

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