Majorca's beaches are turned white with ICE as freak storm hits the tourist hot spot
Majorca was battered by freakish hailstorms yesterday that left renowned tourist hotspots on the Spanish island covered in ice and overrun with flood waters.
Tourists and locals alike were sent running for cover as huge hailstones pelted the resort of Porto Cristo, where idyllic beaches turned from golden to white in a matter of minutes as chunks of ice blanketed the sand.
Municipalities such as Manacor, Sant Llorenç and Sa Pobla were the worst affected, but large swathes of the islands were engulfed in the deluge.
Shocking video footage circulating on social media showed how furniture and tiles on typically sun-soaked decking outside hotels and private flats were smashed by the hailstorms as holidaymakers cowered inside.
Spain's state weather service AEMET issued yellow weather warnings for Majorca and Menorca, warning that up to 50 litres of rainfall per square metre drenched Manacor in just half an hour, triggering flash floods.
The warnings are in place until this evening with parts of the island now facing between 60 and 70 litres of rainfall per square metre in two or three hours.
The culprit behind the rare and destructive weather pattern was put down to what is known in Spain as 'DANA' - short for 'Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos' or 'Isolated Depression at High Levels'.
These phenomena form when a pocket of cold air detaches from the jet stream over the Atlantic and settles over warmer Mediterranean air.
The resulting clash in temperatures and pressures creates intense instability, often unleashing torrential rain, violent hailstorms, and flash floods over short periods.
DANAs produce erratic and slow-moving storms which can dump enormous volumes of water and hail over the same region in hours.
In Spain, where the ground is often dry and the infrastructure ill-prepared for flooding, these deluges can create havoc.
The storm engulfing Majorca comes days after similar downpours punished towns in Valencia less than six months on from catastrophic flooding in the region which left more than 230 people dead.
British holidaymakers were warned against travelling after first-sized hail hammered the popular region in eastern Spain on Thursday amid orange weather warnings by AEMET denoting 'significant danger'.
The hailstorm and resulting floods gave way to chaotic scenes as Valencians rushed for cover in a month where daytime temperatures typically hover around 20 degrees Celsius.
Scarcely believable footage showed how vehicles sustained damage from the hail as others became stuck amid ice floes several inches thick in Villar del Arzobispo, with residents powerless to free them.
Other shocking clips circulating on social media showed the deluge gushing through the typically sun-kissed streets of Guadassequies and l'Olleria.
The sudden storm heaped misery on the region's residents, many of whom lost their livelihoods in the historic 'cold drop' that occurred in October 2024, triggering massive flooding which killed 232 people.
The authorities' perceived inadequacies in emergency preparation, communication and response to last year's weather phenomenon - referred to by the Spanish acronym DANA - left millions disillusioned.
Those flash floods followed days after a historic power outage left almost all of Spain without electricity for hours.
Valencians had planned a massive demonstration to call for the resignation of regional president Carlos Mazon, but it was cancelled due to the power outage.
Roughly a third of Spain remained under yellow or orange weather warnings over the weekend with AEMET warning of 'very strong storms, with large hail and strong wind gusts in areas of the north and east of the Peninsula'.
The agency said the highly irregular conditions bore the hallmarks of a 'cyclonic supercell storm', a weather event which brings severe thunderstorms and hail, but it was later identified as a DANA-induced weather event.
It added that the storm was 'spreading anomalously, deviating significantly southeastward relative to the movement of the other storms in its vicinity, which are moving eastward.'
The perilous conditions in Spain are symptomatic of a wider trend in Europe, which faced its most widespread flooding last year since 2013.
Floodwaters killed at least 335 people in Europe in 2024 - many of them in Spain - and affected more than 410,000, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organisation said in a joint report on Europe's climate last month.
Western Europe was hit hardest, with 2024 ranking among the region's ten wettest years in records going back to 1950.
Storms and flooding are Europe's costliest weather extremes, last year causing damage exceeding €18 billion euros.
Globally, 2024 was also the world's warmest year since records began, as well as the warmest for Europe - the planet's fastest-warming continent.
The planet is now around 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer than in pre-industrial times, mainly due to human-caused climate change.
Southeastern Europe had its longest heat wave on record, totalling 13 days, while Scandinavia's glaciers shrank at the highest rates on record, and heat stress increased across the continent.
Much of Eastern Europe suffered a lack of rain and drought, while floods ravaged western Europe.
Nearly a third of Europe's overall river network exceeded a 'high' flood threshold, while 12% breached 'severe' flood levels in 2024.
Storm Boris in September dumped the heaviest rain ever recorded in Central Europe onto countries, including Austria, Czechia, Germany and Slovakia.
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