Far-Reaching Storm to Move Across Mediterranean

By Adam Douty, Meteorologist

March 23,2015; 8:34PM,EDT

 

 

Unsettled weather during the weekend across the Mediterranean continued into Monday as an area of low pressure brought rain from Spain and Portugal into Morocco.
While most areas had light to moderate rainfall from Sunday into Monday, parts of eastern Spain experienced heavy rainfall; where more than 150 mm (6 inches) was reported in Castellon.
These areas will remain wet through Tuesday as rain spreads farther east across northern Africa and into France, Sardinia and Corsica.
With widespread clouds and showers, travel delays are expected on the roads and at airports from Madrid, Spain to Paris, France and Algiers, Algeria.
Not only will this storm bring cloudy and wet conditions, high temperatures across much of western Europe will be below normal. Madrid is expected to barely rise above 10 C (50 F) on Monday which is about 5 degrees C (9 degrees F) below normal.

Farther south, thunderstorms will develop on Tuesday across eastern Algeria and into Tunisia. These thunderstorms will bring potentially damaging wind gusts and flash flooding across the desert terrain. Strong winds outrunning thunderstorms could produce sandstorms.
These storms will advance into northwestern Libya late on Tuesday and into the night .
Heavy rain and thunderstorms will then slam into Italy and the Balkans on Wednesday as the storm system continue to strengthen.
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Due to the heavy rain and high snow levels that are expected, flooding will be a concern from eastern Croatia to Albania and southern Italy. 25-75 mm (1-3 inches) of rain is expected to fall in these areas.
Snow levels across the Alps will be 1,500 to 2,000 meters (5,000-6,000 feet). As a result, many of the valleys will see rain while the mountains and ski resorts receive snow. Upwards of 30 cm (12 inches) of snow is expected to fall at the higher terrain with even higher totals in northwestern Italy. Snow will also fall across the highest terrain of southern Spain and Morocco.
Meteorologist Eric Leister contributed to this story.