Complicated Easter in Andalusia and complicated decisions to make with our eyes set on the sky. If on Palm Sunday many Brotherhoods decided to leave their images sheltered in their temples due to the rains, instability has increased as the week has progressed. In Seville or Malaga, cities where great devotion to the steps is professed, many brotherhoods decided and continue to decide not to build their Penitence Station and others, playing with the times, have managed to go out into the streets in a few hours where the rainfall gave a truce.
But the next few hours come with heavy clouds, especially in western Andalusia, where the rains will be “abundant” until Good Friday, according to forecasts by Juan de Dios del Pino, delegate of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), who announces that The rainfall “will persist” once the Semana Grande ends, although “not with the same intensity.”
The announcement of rain in a region that is suffering from an extreme drought provokes mixed feelings: on the one hand, the joy that the Andalusian reservoirs continue to gain water for another week and, on the other, the sadness of many devotees for not being able to enjoy one of the key dates of the year.
It is “unlikely” that this Holy Wednesday it will not rain in the western part and just as “unlikely” to find “a gap without precipitation in the morning and night” of Holy Thursday, which would have a full impact on the early morning of Seville, del Pino pointed out.
Without a doubt, this news impacts not only citizens who want to see the Sevillian steps, but also tourism. Hoteliers were already announcing that the weather was causing a significant drop in their expectations, just as it was feared that there would be a stoppage in last-minute hotel room reservations.
In the eastern end of Andalusia “it is possible that the front will not arrive yet” in the next few hours, in the case of Almería and regions close to this province, where the Aemet has a forecast that indicates that “there will be no rainfall and even that, if there is , there are long periods without rain.
Regarding the temperatures, even though they are “very low”, the Aemet delegate pointed out that “no record has been broken.” “This has already happened more times, it is not something that cannot be expected at the end of March,” explained Juan de Dios del Pino, who acknowledged that “the pressure” of these days “we are dealing with well.”
“We don’t like to give bad news and we don’t come to ruin Holy Week,” he said, alluding to the reports that are given to the brotherhoods so that they can make the decision of whether or not to go out on the streets. Regarding the brotherhoods that this Holy Tuesday decided not to have a penitential station, the head of the Aemet in Andalusia has indicated that “the decisions were correct.”
