03/03/2005 00:00
TW
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Staff Reporter TWO new polar fronts are forecasted to arrive tomorrow and Sunday in the Balearic Islands, bringing with them colder temperatures and more snow. Over the next few days the temperatures will be colder and snow will affect those regions over 500 metres (this will change to 1'500 metres during the next few days), said Agustí Jansà, director of the Balearic Met Office.


In addition, these new polar fronts will bring rain today and this will last straight through until Sunday, with less rainfall expected on Saturday. The rain will also be accompanied with intervals of strong winds.

Snow is expected to fall today in regions in the Balearic Islands that are over 1'300 metres high. The snow line will drop to 600 metres tomorrow and regions over 500 metres during the weekend until Monday.

The coldest temperatures were found in Lluc and at the Minorca Airport yesterday morning (0 degrees), followed by Porreres which registered 1 degree and Portopí in Palma registering 5 degrees. During yesterday the temperatures did get warmer and reached 11 degrees in Minorca and 12 degrees in Majorca and Ibiza.

In respect of sea transport, the ferry company, Baleária, yesterday cancelled two of its fast ferry services. The Federico García Lorca fast ferry at 8am and 11am that connects Dénia in Alicante with the Balearic Islands was cancelled because of the bad weather and sea conditions.

However the 5pm and 8pm crossings from Denia in Alicante to the Balearic Islands (Ibiza and Palma de Majorca) on the Federico García Lorca ferry were yesterday running, said a spokesperson from the Baleária company.

All passengers who had booked tickets on the cancelled ferries were able to travel on alternative ferries at the next available times, said the spokesperson.

The rest of the ports on the islands were operating as normal yesterday.
For the past three days certain roads in the Tramuntana area have been closed off or limited to traffic, but yesterday all roads in Majorca were open and there were no restrictions anywhere on the island, except for parts of the Puig Mayor road that were closed to traffic yesterday because of patches of ice, said a spokesperson from the Traffic Guardia Civil.

This week the area around the C710 road was closed to traffic from Lluc up to Mirador de Ses Barques (kilometres 21 and 45) and drivers were asked to use tyre chains on route PM-213 between Caimari and Lluc, and on the road between Pollensa and Lluc.