Laurence Dollimore
LOCALS racing to the beach during the fourth heatwave of the year have caused 15km traffic jams in southern Spain today.
The tailbacks were seen on the busy A-44 road, which connects inland Granada with the popular Costa Tropical.
The sunny coast features resorts popular with British expats and tourists, including Motril and Almuñecar.
READ MORE: Red weather alert in Spain this weekend
According to local newspaper Ideal, the roads ‘completely collapsed’ due to the mass exodus on Saturday morning, with thousands of cars coming to a standstill.
Large parts of Granada are on orange alert for extreme heat today, with temperatures to reach 40C – or even higher locally.
It comes as Spain has issued a series of red alerts for extreme heat this weekend – the highest warning possible.
It means there is a serious risk to life in the affected areas due to exceedingly high temperatures – which could surpass 40C.
It comes as Friday saw the start of the country’s fourth official heatwave of the summer.
The red alerts are in place on Sunday in Liebana, Villaverde and inland areas of Gipuzkoa.
Rather uncharacteristically, all three areas are on Spain’s northernmost coastline, between the Basque Country and Cantabria.
Meanwhile, there are no heat warnings in place in the most popular holiday resorts, neither on the coasts of Valencia, Alicante nor Malaga.
There is a yellow alert in place for high temperatures on the Balearic Islands of Mallorca and Ibiza, however, with highs of 37C forecast for Sunday.
