Yellow rain warning issued for Castellón coast as storm floods inland areas

The interior and northern coast of Castellón province remained under Spain's highest-level red rain warning early on Friday, with the state weather agency Aemet forecasting up to 90 litres per square metre in a single hour and as much as 250 litres in 12 hours, along with hail and strong wind gusts, until midday, ElDiario.es reported. Overnight storms had already dropped 145.8 litres per square metre in Alcalà de Xivert and 127.8 litres in Polinyà del Xúquer, in Valencia's Ribera area, according to Aemet and the Valencian Meteorology Association (AVAMET).

Other towns recorded similarly high totals overnight: 140.6 litres per square metre in Cervera del Maestre, 133.4 in Cabanes and 125.8 in Peñíscola, AVAMET said. Flooding was reported in municipalities on Castellón's northern coast and in parts of the Ribera area, ElDiario.es reported.

Regional emergencies chief Juan Carlos Valderrama said the worst of the storm stayed out at sea, where more than 160 litres per square metre fell in ten minutes. "If it had hit the coast there would have been serious problems," he said, after a meeting of the Valencian region's emergency coordination centre. He said there had been 77 storm-related incidents overnight across the region; a separate Friday tally from Europa Press put the total at 69, with 41 in Castellón province and 28 in Valencia.

Firefighters rescued a woman from a car trapped by rising floodwater in Riba-roja del Túria, near Valencia, after water reached halfway up the vehicle's wheels, La Vanguardia reported. A total of 411,953 pupils had no classes on Friday after dozens of town councils suspended lessons, the regional education department said.

Renfe resumed Cercanías commuter services on the C1, C2, C3 and the València-Sagunto section of the C6 line on Friday morning, along with Media Distancia trains linking Valencia with the Murcia region and Alicante, after suspending all services the previous evening for passenger safety. Trains to Catalonia remained suspended, La Vanguardia reported.

MeteoAlarm, which aggregates official European weather warnings, also issued a new yellow rain warning for Castellón's northern coast and for the Alcaraz y Segura area further south on Friday. The interior of Castellón remained under the more severe red warning, due to ease to orange and then yellow through the day as the storm moved on, according to MeteoAlarm and El País.