Urgent weather warning for eastern Spain as alert for heavy rain is upgraded to orange

METEOROLOGISTS have upgraded a weather warning in place for parts of eastern Spain from midnight tonight.

It comes after the entire coast, plus the coasts of Valencia and Castellon were placed on a yellow alert for heavy rainfall from 12am to 3pm on Wednesday.

Now, that warning by state weather agency Aemet has been upgraded to orange across the southern half of Valencia coast and some inland areas.

They include Gandia, Cullera and Alzira, where experts have warned up to 100m of rain could fall per square metre over a 12-hour period.

An orange warning is the second-most severe after red and means there is a ‘significant risk’ to life.

The rest of the Costa Blanca north, Valencia north and coast of Castellon remain on yellow alert.

Aemet warns of up to 60mm of rain per square metre over 12 hours, as well as a chance of accompanying storms.

The Alicante areas under the yellow warning include Javea, Gandia and Denia.

Benidorm, which neighbours Denia, just misses out on the weather warning, but will not skip the rain.

Much like the rest of the region, the wet weather in the tourism hotspot has already begun, with rain falling from early this morning.

Rainfall is expected across the Costa Blanca for the rest of the day, with the biggest downpours expected tomorrow.