Here is The Leader daily briefing with the news from around Spain, things to do locally, the forecast for the day, and other notable events Today in Spain.
News Around Spain
Thursday, January 11, will begin with the publication of industrial production in Spain and Italy, the last result of which showed in both cases a contraction in industrial activity. We will also know the passenger transport figures for November in Spain.
The trial is expected to conclude today in the Provincial Court of Ciudad Real against a woman accused of fraud for stealing a total of 181,364.37 euro from her 94-year-old aunt, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, with the prosecution maintaining the request of 5 years in prison for the accused. The fraud was committed through three bank transfers between August 2015 and September 2018. The victim of the scam died on September 14, 2018, leaving her 17 niblings, including the accused, as universal heirs in equal parts. As well as prison, the accused is set to pay a fine and return the money stolen to her cousins.
The Council of Ministers approved the Ministry of Health’s proposal for the selection of suppliers for environmentally friendly Radiology Room equipment for several autonomous communities, and some national health centres, with an estimated value of 70,540,451 euro. The autonomous communities of Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Castilla la Mancha, Extremadura, La Rioja, Madrid, the Valencian Community, as well as the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, will all benefit through participation in this Framework Agreement.
Although we will have to wait until the next report to see how the rain of this week have impacted the situation, but according to the latest weekly Hydrological Bulletin, the Spanish hydraulic reserve stands at 45.9% of its total capacity (56,039 hm³), compared to 46.7% the previous year and 54.8% of the average for the last decade. The reservoirs currently store 25,698 hm³ of water, increasing in the last week by 224 hm³ (0.4% of the current total capacity of the reservoirs).
Although there are usually huge benefits in getting a Spain-qualified accountant to handle this, albeit at a cost, the self-employed have until January 30 to complete the fourth quarterly IVA self-assessment of 2023, the quarterly declaration with which they will close the fiscal year. This model is also one of the most important, since in the last three months of the year businesses usually concentrate a good part of the income that they need to include before the end of the year, so the result to be paid can be higher. To help point you in the right direction, the experts at Self-Employed and Entrepreneur provided a rough guide to what can be included in your returns, which you can read on the website, spaintoday.news.
To read these articles in full, visit SpainToday.news
Things to Do Today
The Pascual Flores pilot boat is open for visitors in Torrevieja on Wednesdays through to Sundays until 29 January.
Torrevieja has just opened inscriptions to the municipal gymnastics school, although places are extremely limited with just 10 spots available when they made the announcement yesterday. The places are subject to being on the padrón, and everything that entails, and for those over 16. Full details are available from the sports department in the town hall.
In the Casa de Cultura in Guardamar del Segura a collective exhibition of the works of young creators in different fields of plastic arts, photography, fashion design, and drawing is on until Saturday 20 January. A second collection, featuring “new perspectives” is also on in the same venue until February 4.
Also in Guardamar, the yoga on the beach course starts this Saturday, but again, places are limited, so you need to hurry if you want to take part. Full details are available from your town hall.
For more local events, pick up The Leader newspaper every Monday, and This is Torrevieja for Torrevieja events.
Local Markets
Thursday markets are held in Alicante, Bigastro, Campoamor (Orihuela Costa), El Altet (Elche), Gran Alacant, Lo Pagan (San Pedro del Pinatar), Rojales, and San Fulgencio (La Marina).
The roads will of course be busy around those locations.
Traffic and Travel
On the roads of Spain, coinciding with the weekends of the winter months, an increase in traffic is expected on the main routes, national roads, and motorways towards rest areas, second homes and mountain areas for practicing winter sports.
FRIDAY
Movements out of large urban centres and increased circulation on the main communication routes towards rest areas, second homes and mountain areas, the least favourable time being between 7 and 9 p.m.
We have had snow already in some places, and more is forecast on Thursday. If you are going to the mountains, remember to take snow chains (click this link to browse snow chains on Amazon). If you come across a blue circular sign showing snow chains, it is obligatory to have them fitted on your wheels before passing the sign. You are not permitted further without having them installed. It is both dangerous, and illegal.
Another top tip for driving in snow or ice conditions is to carry a bag of cat litter, which you can use as grit on the road to provide traction if you find yourself in a precarious location.
For information and updates about driving in Spain, visit N332.es
Flight wise, the equipment tests in Paris continue, affecting French air space, but the impact is reducing and so there isn´t much of a problem anticipated today for the 22,300 flights scheduled over Europe.
It´s possible there may be some delays around the Canary Islands due to Air Traffic Control industrial action, with Lanzarote the most affected, but with minimum services guaranteed, this is expected to be minimal.
They shouldn´t affect Spain but to the east of the continent there is a military flight test planned in Turkiye for the next two days, and the military activity over the Black Sea we mentioned yesterday, but that ends today.
Weather
On Thursday, rainfall will continue in the Cantabrian Sea, especially affecting the coasts and, to a lesser extent, the interior, and will tend to subside at the end of the day. They will also continue in Catalonia, where they will subside in the afternoon, and in the Balearic Islands, and could be locally strong.
Snow, which started yesterday in many places, will continue at a level of 300-600 metres in parts of the interior of Catalonia, and may affect highland areas of the central depression. The wind and north winds will also intensify, blowing at strong intervals.
Thanks to this cold spell, throughout Thursday and Friday, it is likely that frost will spread across a good part of the Peninsula, except for the southwestern third and coastlines, and may become locally strong in mountain systems in the northern half. Daytime temperatures will be low, especially on Thursday, with maximums below 5ºC in large areas of the northern half of the peninsula and locally on the southern plateau.
Starting on Friday afternoon, the AEMET expects temperatures to rise and precipitation to cease, which will put an end to this episode of winter weather.
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