Cold snap as snow falls in the hills of Spain’s Costa Blanca

SNOW has hit high inland parts of Alicante Province today(January 7) with lorries banned from using some roads.

Storm Filomena reached the region this morning, with an orange alert that snowfalls could reach 15 centimetres in some areas that are 500 to 800 metres above sea level.

The start of the new school term has been postponed in  Sax, Muro, Ibi, Villena, Castalla, Salinas, Biar, Onil, Beneixama and Alfafara.

The need to keep classrooms ventilated because of the pandemic combined with the snow forecasts led to the school suspensions.

Maximum temperatures have dropped to a range of between 8 and 12 degrees in the area.

Overnight lows dropped to minus 7.7 degrees in Villena and minus 5.5 in Pinoso.

A number of roads in Alicante Province are said to be only passable with care.

They are the CV-70 (Alcoy), CV-80 (Sax), CV-800 (Xixona), A-3 (Requena), A-7 (Alcoy) and N-340 (Alcoy).

Authorities have advised the use of snow chains for motorists to make sure that can complete their journey on those routes, with lorries prohibited from using some of them.

Emergency plans have been put on stand-by in the Alcoy area as a precaution.