Deadly Storm Leonardo hits Spain and Portugal

Climate Focus

By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello,

This week, Storm Leonardo pounded the Iberian Peninsula with deadly torrential rains, prompting more flood warnings as another storm, Marta, is expected to hit the region over the weekend.

Leonardo is the latest in a wave of half a dozen winter storms to hit Portugal and Spain since the start of 2026, killing several people, ripping roofs off homes and flooding towns.

Authorities in southern Spain have evacuated residential areas, fearing a major river could overflow and warned of landslides caused by bursting aquifers on Friday after Leonardo's heavy rainfall.

Spain's state weather agency AEMET warned that Marta would hit the peninsula on Saturday, bringing more rainfall.

Several residential areas near the Guadalquivir riverbed in Cordoba province were evacuated overnight due to the dramatic rise in water levels.

Also evacuated were the approximately 1,500 residents of Grazalema, a mountain village popular with hikers, as water seeped through the walls of houses and cascaded along steep cobbled streets.

In Portugal's second-biggest city Porto, the River Douro overflowed in the early hours on Friday, causing minor flooding at riverside cafe terraces. In the country's south, large parts of the town of Alcacer do Sal by the River Sado remained semi-submerged for a third day.

More than 7,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in the Andalusia region so far amid a "storm train".

Flooding is becoming more frequent across Europe as the atmosphere warms and holds more moisture due to climate change, scientists say. Unprecedented flash floods killed 237 people in Spain's Valencia region in October 2024.

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