MALAGA WEATHER UPDATE Tuesday 3rd June 2014: Top of the morning to you all. On the menu today is Sun with everything......and a bit of wind on the side!!!.......Yes, other than light cloud that may thicken as the day moves on to show some slightly darker blobs, that sun is going to beam down nicely!!!.......Tomorrow we are looking at the same and indeed into Thursday, but late Thursday we might start to see reasonable cloud cover develop as our weather direction changes ever so slightly!!!......Friday may now become a cloudy day, still with that sun beaming through the gaps and those temperatures hitting the 30s again, and Saturday we are still expecting a little inclement weather to pop up again; nothing major, but may just see the odd shower through the night Friday/Saturday!!!.......Sunday and into the start of the week after is looking grand at this time......And that is your weather outlook for today so if you hate being Educated then have a good day!!!......For those of you that do like a little light read, I hope you will find this of heavy stuff of interest?........A young astute member of this group (Tracy Morgan to be precise so blame her!!!) asked a very good question on a thread yesterday. She asked if their was any information on the web about how the rain had affected the levels of the reservoirs of Malaga!!!.......The amazing Jill Leonard, founder of this network of groups serving Spain, together with other members, swung into action and pulled up info on the man made reservoirs that make up the Malaga Lake District!!!......Of course, me being me and being all knowledgeable in the field of water supply and other services, it is my job after all, happened to point out a fact or two and it dawned on me that most of you good people have probably never given a thought to where your water that comes out of your taps actually comes from!!!........So, although not exactly weather/fire related as such, water security and the risk of drought could, at least, be linked to rainfall so, long winded and probably to be continued tomorrow, Im going to tell you!!!.......First of all, this info does not apply to those campo dwelling types who have their own wells!!!........This info relates to the network or town supply piped from one of the many water authorities in the Province (I use the term Authorities lightly.....I worked with a few and they aint no Authority on this subject!!!)........So, lets go back to the original question; Had the recent rains made a difference to our reservoirs?..........The answer was of course yes but I pointed out that the rain, although heavy in places, was not prolonged enough to have made a significant difference. Then came the stats on the three reservoirs that make up the Malaga Lake District and they showed a reasonable increase. However, heres the thing and the cause of this education topic!!!......The huge Malaga Lake District is not a drinking water supply!!!........Lets let that sink in!!!.......After all, theres three bloody great dams making three bloody great reservoirs so they must be for our drininking water!!!......No!!!......Not exactly and let me explain!!!..........The catchment area for those three lakes (man made reservoirs) is huge and Ive mentioned this before......From the North Western slopes of the Sierra de las Nieves feeds the Embalse (reservoir) de Conde de Guadalhorce.........From just East of Ronda, far to the West of the lakes, via the Rio Guadalteba feeds into Embalse del Guadalteba!!!.......and then the third and largest lake and that having the most reliable water source taken from the extensive plains of Campillos across to Antequera and the El Torcal Mountains is Embalse de Guadalhorce!!!.......These three lakes are held back by three separate dams all built independently over many years and for the purpose of Hydro Electricity and then irrigation water!!!........So, why not drinking water???.......the water has too much salinity!!!.......Thats right, although adequate for irrigation purposes when all three water sources are mixed, the largest catchment in the largest and most reliable of the three reservoirs comes from an area where much of the water contains salt!!!......I said this was going to be long winded didnt I?........There is, to the North of the Malaga Lakes, an amazing lagoon that, in the main, stays the same level much of the year round and that is Fuente de la Piedra, the one with all the Flamingos!!!.... (If youve never been up to the Malaga Lakes or to see the amazing lagoon with the Flamingos on youve missed a real treat!!!)..........Its called Fuente (Fountain/Spring) because thats what it is!!!......Its main source is through water that is percolating up from the floor of the lagoon itself through a rock strata that contains high salt content therefore making this lagoon, and other smaller lagoons in the area, salt water pools......hence the Flamingos!!!......This and other Fuentes in that area flow all year round and eventually drain into what is the Embalse de Guadalhorce making its waters salty!!!.......Some of this salt water source also enters into the adjacent Embalse de Guadalteba making its water have a high salt content and the remaining Embalse de Conde de Guadalhorce is fresh water from rain run off/snow melt but is not reliable enough to be a good fresh water reservoir!!!.......So, its used still to this day for hydro electricity although only in peak demand, is fed down what remains of old rotting concrete irrigation canals down the Guadalhorce Valley; rotting because of the high salt content of the water causing the steel reinforcing to corrode and the concrete to split apart (delaminate)!!!........and, I said is not a drinking water, but water is piped to an old, and Malagas original, desalination works on the edge of Malaga City!!!......I say desalination works loosely as it does not operate as you would desalinate sea water and is only used as a last resort to supply Malaga City if required!!!........So, with the Province of Malaga consuming nearly fifteen cubic hectometres of water each month, which works out at about 165 litres per person each day, with just under half of this water going to Malaga city, where do we get our water from and what should we be looking at in terms of rainfall measurement for drinking water security???........I will go into great detail tomorrow and enlighten you further!!!.......I think we have learnt a lot for today and need to turn our attention back to the main task in hand and that watch for wild fire!!!......Have a great day and do try a visit those lakes this year..........great place for picnics, you can swim in them, hire boats with slides on and so much more!!!.......Jim Fraser for the Local Fire & Weather Watch Network........Your Fuente of Information & Knowledge!!! :)
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 02:15:10 +0000
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