The goddess Cybele covered in snow in 2018
It's been days since Their Majesties left behind the warm East to distribute magic and gifts all over the world. Furthermore, on this occasion, Three Kings' Day could surprise us with an unusual snowfall
According to forecasts, it will snow in places where it did not do so years ago and Madrid will be one of the cities that could be covered in white.
The team of meteorologists weathered , in its section Experts speaking, reveals the keys to this storm that has already been baptized as 'Time of Kings'.
Accumulated snow forecast until Sunday morning
A SNOW NEVER SEEN IN YEARS
In the middle of this week a 'shock' of air masses with different characteristics will cause a storm of rain and snowfall over the Iberian Peninsula. Three Kings day could specifically start an episode of snowfalls never seen for years.
Snowflakes could appear at medium heights and even, at times, low, affecting cities such as Madrid, Zaragoza or Pamplona.
“The persistent and intense winter precipitation that will be generated throughout Spain, from the Canary Islands to the Balearic Islands, passing through the Peninsula, will be produced by the interaction of various atmospheric systems coming from disparate latitudes: the arctic air that has affected us since the end of 2020, the low pressure system that maintains snowfall in the north and, from the Atlantic, to the west of the Canary Islands, another subtropical storm that is injecting soft and very humid air ”, Explain Francisco Martín, meteorologist and coordinator of the RAM.
According to the meteorologist, “all this generates a winter ‘perfect cocktail’ to generate abundant and locally intense rainfall, much in the form of snow on the Peninsula, and that could be accompanied by dangerous freezing rain in some specific areas of the interior of the peninsula.
GOLD, INCENSE, MYRRH... AND SNOW!
“The forecast for the next few days is complicated, but according to what is currently seen, the snowfalls that have so far affected the Cantabrian regions, the north of Castilla y León, La Rioja, Navarra and the rest of the Pyrenees, in the next few days they will spread throughout a large part of the Peninsula, the Balearic Islands and the peaks of Tenerife”, reports José Antonio Maldonado, director of Meteorology at Meteored.
For his part, José Miguel Viñas, meteorologist at Meteored, points out that "the year has started with intense cold in the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, and abundant snowfall in the extreme north of the peninsula, consequence of the arrival of an arctic air mass whose source region is located north of Scandinavia and west of Russia, in the Arctic Ocean, from which it takes its name.
According to Viñas, this cold will continue to be with us for at least another week, "although starting on Three Kings' Day it will be joined by a mass of temperate and very humid air of subtropical origin, which will cause a very outstanding episode of snowfalls”.
“Although global warming has accustomed us to relatively mild winters, nothing prevents some years, like this one, from producing episodes of great harshness in winter”, concludes José Miguel Viñas.
WHERE WILL IT SNOW?
On Three Kings' Day, children should go out into the streets well wrapped up because it will be quite cold. Jose Antonio Maldonado comments that "rainfall is expected in the Canary Islands, Andalusia - where it will snow from 800 or 1000 meters - and the southeast of Castilla La Mancha , with the snow level at 500 meters”.
The Director of Meteorology of Meteored adds that “On Thursday it may begin to snow in Madrid and the rainfall will affect almost the entire Peninsula, with a drop in the snow level to 200 or 300 meters. You will be able to snow in places where it has not snowed for years”.
That said, wrap up well: The Kings are coming and they bring snowflakes for everyone!