MOST of Spain is on yellow or orange alert for high winds today and is expected to be so until at least the other side of the weekend, according to the State meteorological agency, AEMET.
Gales of up to 100 kilometres per hour are forecast for the Comunidad Valenciana, Navarra, Cantabria and the provinces of Huesca and Lleida in Aragón and Catalunya, all of which are tagged as 'high risk'.
'Yellow alerts' have been issued for the Balearic Islands, Madrid, the rest of Catalunya and Aragón, La Rioja, Asturias, Murcia and the Basque Country, and in the southern provinces of Almería and Granada and parts of Castilla y León, particularly the provinces of León itself, Burgos, Palencia, Soria and Zamora.
Tidal surges are a high risk in Asturias, Cantabria, Galicia and the coastal provinces of the Basque Country, as well as in Almería and Granada.
The northern strip of the mainland is likely to see torrential rain.
But the cold snap is said to be on its way out, with a rise in daytime temperatures in the Balearic Islands and the east of the mainland and a relatively sharp increase in night temperatures in the north-west, the Pyrénées and the Ebro valley.
No rain is forecast for western Andalucía or the Mediterranean, but cloudy skies are likely to accompany the strong gusts of wind.
