Alex Trelinski
UNSEASONAL early July storms forced four flights- two of them from the UK- to be diverted from Valencia Airport on Monday morning.
The adverse weather forced the services to land 180km south at Alicante-Elche airport.
The flights were from Birmingham, London-Gatwick, Geneva, and Oviedo.
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Other services were delayed landing at Valencia but airport authorities said that things had now returned to normal.
State weather forecaster Aemet had warned of ‘an adverse weather situation that can generate showers and storms of very strong intensity’.
Heavy storms hit the Valencia area from around 6.00am and were due to dissipate at around 3.00pm.
Average rainfall levels of around 40 litres per m2 hour were recorded in Valencia province.
Numbers went as high as 59 litres in Xodos and 56.4 litres in Utiel.
Besides the diverted flights to Alicante-Elche, the Costa Blanca airport also had to deal with an emergency involving a British passenger with medical problems on a flight from Leeds-Bradford airport.
The captain requested a priority landing which authorities granted.
