‘Satan's storm' smashes Spain in wild footage
Tourists and locals were forced to evacuate beaches as the raging winds sent parasols and sun beds flying into the air in a freak 40C heat burst known as 'Satan's Storm'.
At least five people were rescued from the water in Spain's Costa Tropical as police and coastguards urgently scoured the area for a missing person.
The tornado was caused by a rare heat burst – with some areas reaching temperatures of up to 40C – commonly known as Satan's Storm.
It's a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterised by a sudden, localised increase in air temperature.
Horrifying footage shows holiday-makers fleeing from beaches as the winds pummel across the sands, sending wild gusts of debris and dust into the air.
Meanwhile, trees can be seen dangerously swinging from side to side under dark and cloudy skies.
Another clip shows garden furniture, pot plants and trees strewn across the ground after being whipped up by the devastating gusts.
Popular holiday resorts Motril and Almunecar, in the south of Granada, were the worst hit as two tornadoes and waterspouts cascaded through the areas on Sunday evening.
A waterspout is a rotating column of air – similar to a tornado – that forms over a body of water.
Spanish weather agency Aemet confirmed on X: 'The temperature rose rapidly to 40 degrees Celsius at 7.50pm, accompanied by very strong gusts of wind that reached 53mph (85km/h).'
Meanwhile, Motril's mayor Luisa Garcia Chamorro, urged: 'Attention. We are experiencing what is known as a heat burst with very strong, almost hurricane winds.
'We recommend you don't leave your homes or remain on the street. Exercise maximum caution.'
Laura Bueno, who was at Torrenueva Beach, Motril at the time said: 'What a scare. A heat burst swept away chairs and sunshades.
'It was a hot wind like the winds from the Sahara Desert. It knocked over containers and blew everything into the sea. Children and adults suffered panic attacks.'
Another shocked local added: 'I don't remember seeing such a rapid weather change in such a short space of time.'
The wild storms come as Spain tackles ongoing fires tearing through parts of the country.
Four people have now died and six left with horrific burns in Castilla y Leon, north of Spain's capital Madrid, as the country enters its ninth day of wildfires.
While, more than 3,500 residents were forced out of their homes in the provinces of León, Zamora, Salamanca, and Palencia amid reports of 28 active fires.
In Ourense, northwestern Spain, wildfires have devastated almost 60,000 hectares of land, making it the worst forest disaster in the province so far this summer.
The wildfires are evolving irregularly, and all of them are being closely monitored for possible re-ignitions.
A spokesperson for the regional government in León, Eduardo Diego, said residents in the town of Castropetre will be forced to evacuate because of the blaze.
Meanwhile, rescue teams continue to battle the fire tearing through Cáceres, Extremadura, a western Spanish region, which the president of the regional government María Guardiola said was 'out of control'.
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News.com.au
19 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Satan's storm' smashes Spain in wild footage
This is the shocking moment a massive hot storm hits Spain sparking tornadoes and forcing dozens to flee. Tourists and locals were forced to evacuate beaches as the raging winds sent parasols and sun beds flying into the air in a freak 40C heat burst known as 'Satan's Storm'. At least five people were rescued from the water in Spain's Costa Tropical as police and coastguards urgently scoured the area for a missing person. The tornado was caused by a rare heat burst – with some areas reaching temperatures of up to 40C – commonly known as Satan's Storm. It's a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterised by a sudden, localised increase in air temperature. Horrifying footage shows holiday-makers fleeing from beaches as the winds pummel across the sands, sending wild gusts of debris and dust into the air. Meanwhile, trees can be seen dangerously swinging from side to side under dark and cloudy skies. Another clip shows garden furniture, pot plants and trees strewn across the ground after being whipped up by the devastating gusts. Popular holiday resorts Motril and Almunecar, in the south of Granada, were the worst hit as two tornadoes and waterspouts cascaded through the areas on Sunday evening. A waterspout is a rotating column of air – similar to a tornado – that forms over a body of water. Spanish weather agency Aemet confirmed on X: 'The temperature rose rapidly to 40 degrees Celsius at 7.50pm, accompanied by very strong gusts of wind that reached 53mph (85km/h).' Meanwhile, Motril's mayor Luisa Garcia Chamorro, urged: 'Attention. We are experiencing what is known as a heat burst with very strong, almost hurricane winds. 'We recommend you don't leave your homes or remain on the street. Exercise maximum caution.' Laura Bueno, who was at Torrenueva Beach, Motril at the time said: 'What a scare. A heat burst swept away chairs and sunshades. 'It was a hot wind like the winds from the Sahara Desert. It knocked over containers and blew everything into the sea. Children and adults suffered panic attacks.' Another shocked local added: 'I don't remember seeing such a rapid weather change in such a short space of time.' The wild storms come as Spain tackles ongoing fires tearing through parts of the country. Four people have now died and six left with horrific burns in Castilla y Leon, north of Spain's capital Madrid, as the country enters its ninth day of wildfires. While, more than 3,500 residents were forced out of their homes in the provinces of León, Zamora, Salamanca, and Palencia amid reports of 28 active fires. In Ourense, northwestern Spain, wildfires have devastated almost 60,000 hectares of land, making it the worst forest disaster in the province so far this summer. The wildfires are evolving irregularly, and all of them are being closely monitored for possible re-ignitions. A spokesperson for the regional government in León, Eduardo Diego, said residents in the town of Castropetre will be forced to evacuate because of the blaze. Meanwhile, rescue teams continue to battle the fire tearing through Cáceres, Extremadura, a western Spanish region, which the president of the regional government María Guardiola said was 'out of control'.
News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
Spain and Portugal battle wildfires as death toll mounts
Thousands of firefighters backed by the military and water-bombing aircraft on Monday battled dozens of wildfires across Spain and Portugal, as the death toll increased to six since the outbreaks began. The Iberian peninsula has been particularly affected by forest fires fuelled by a succession of heatwaves and droughts blamed on climate change that have hit the southern Mediterranean. Two firefighters were killed on Sunday -- one in each country, both in road accidents -- taking the death toll to two in Portugal and four in Spain. The head of Spain's Civil Protection and Emergencies, Virginia Barcones, told broadcaster TVE there were currently 23 "active fires in operation status two", indicating a serious and direct threat to the population. The fires, now in their second week, were concentrated in Galicia, Castile and Leon, and Extremadura regions. In the Ourense province of Galicia, northwestern Spain, signs of the fires were everywhere, from ashen forests and blackened soil to destroyed homes, with thick smoke forcing people to wear facemasks. Firefighters in protective clothing, armed with fire beaters, battled to put out fires, as locals in just shorts and T-shirts used water from hoses and buckets to try to stop the spread. "In my 75 years, I truly mean it, I have never experienced anything like this before," a woman in the town of O Barco de Valdeorras told AFP. Another resident dousing his home with water from a hosepipe described the wildfire that ripped through his area as "like a bomb". "It came from below and it was like a hurricane," he said. "The good thing was that in two minutes it headed up and it didn't stay here long. "If not, our house would have been burnt, it would not have survived." - 'Complicated situation' - Barcones said she hoped weather conditions would turn to help tackle the fires, as Spain's meteorological agency forecast "the last day of this heatwave", which has seen temperatures hit 45C in parts of the south. Many other places have seen temperatures above 40C. Elsewhere in the southern Mediterranean, the authorities in Turkey said two major fires had been brought under control, while rain and falling temperatures have helped firefighters extinguish dozens of blazes in the Balkans. Spain is being helped with firefighting aircraft from France, Italy, Slovakia and the Netherlands, while Portugal is receiving air support from Sweden and Morocco. "It's a very difficult, very complicated situation," Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles told TVE. The size and severity of the fires and the intensity of the smoke -- visible from space -- were making "airborne action" difficult," she added. Officials in Castile and Leon said a firefighter died on Sunday night when the water truck he was driving flipped over on a steep forest road. "For an unknown reason, the vehicle approached the embankment and overturned, falling down a steep slope," the regional government posted on X. Two other volunteer firefighters have died in Castile and Leon, while a Romanian employee of a riding school north of Madrid lost his life trying to protect horses from the fire. In Portugal, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said a firefighter died on Sunday night in a traffic accident that left two of his colleagues seriously injured. A former mayor in the eastern town of Guarda died on Friday while trying to tackle a fire. Some 2,000 firefighters were deployed across northern and central Portugal on Monday, with about half of them concentrated in the town of Arbanil.
ABC News
3 days ago
- ABC News
Hurricane Erin explodes to category five strength near Atlantic's Caribbean islands
A hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean has exploded in strength to a category five storm just north of the Caribbean, rapidly powering up from a tropical storm in a single day, the the US National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane Erin was not expected to make land, however it threatened to dump flooding rains in the north-east Caribbean as it continued to grow larger. The first Atlantic hurricane of 2025, Erin ramped up from a tropical storm to a category five hurricane in a mere 24 hours. By late Saturday morning local time its maximum sustained winds had more than doubled to 255 kilometres per hour. Mike Brennen, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said Erin grew into a "very powerful hurricane," with its winds gaining 96kph in about nine hours. Authorities said Erin should begin to slowly weaken on Monday as the storm encounters increased wind shear. However forecasters predicted that it will remain a major hurricane until late in the week. The hurricane remained a category five storm Saturday evening when it was located 220 kilometres north-west of Anguilla and moving west at 24kph. The storm's centre was forecast to remain at sea, passing 233km north of Puerto Rico, according to the National Hurricane Center. Tropical storm watches were issued for St Martin, St Barts and St Maarten, and authorities warned that heavy rain in some areas could trigger flash flooding, landslides and mudslides. Turks and Caicos Islands, south-east of the Bahamas, were also under a tropical storm watch. Though compact, with hurricane-force winds only extending 45 kilometres from its centre, Erin was expected to double or even triple in size in the coming days. Powerful rip currents could affect the US East Coast from Florida to the mid-Atlantic next week despite the eye of the storm forecast to remain far offshore, Mr Brennan said. Hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry said Erin gained strength at a pace that was "incredible for any time of year, let alone August 16th". Mr Lowry said only four other category five hurricanes have been recorded in the Atlantic on or before August 16. The most powerful storms tend to form later in the year, with the hurricane season typically peaking in mid-September. In October 2005 Hurricane Wilma rocketed from a tropical storm to a category five in less than 24 hours, according to National Hurricane Center advisories from that time. And in October 2007 Hurricane Felix took just over a day to go from a tropical storm to category five. Including Erin, there have been 43 hurricanes that have reached category five status on record in the Atlantic said Dan Pydynowski, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, a private forecasting company. "They're certainly rare, although this would mark the fourth year in a row that we've had one in the Atlantic basin," Mr Pydynowski said. Conditions needed for hurricanes to reach such strength include very warm ocean water, little to no wind shear and being far from land, he said. AP
