Storm Leonardo was expected to dissipate slightly on Friday, after causing severe flooding, evacuations and travel problems in Andalusia since Wednesday, yet with yellow-level weather warnings still in place for further rain in the provinces of Cádiz, Jaén, Seville and Málaga.
Search teams recovered a body on Friday in the area where a woman had been reported missing after falling into the Turvilla river while trying to rescue her dog in Sayalonga (Málaga).
Her partner, with whom she had been living in the Axarquía district for more than a decade, witnessed the incident and alerted the emergency services.
The body was found around one kilometre from the site of her disappearance, and efforts were under way to confirm its identity.
The storm, which has also killed one man in Portugal, is the latest in a wave of half a dozen winter storms to hit the Iberian Peninsula since the start of 2026, killing several people, ripping roofs off homes and flooding towns. ALSO READ: Thousands evacuated in Andalusia as Storm Leonardo leaves homes without power, towns cut off.
In Andalusia, more than 8,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, in addition to those who have been evacuated in Extremadura.
Many residential areas near the Guadalquivir River in Córdoba were evacuated on Thursday night because the dramatic rise in water levels.
About 1,500 residents were ordered to leave their homes in Grazalema, a mountain village popular with hikers, as water seeped through the walls of houses and cascaded along steep cobbled streets.
Andalusia’s regional president, Juanma Moreno, told Cadena Ser radio that aquifers in the Grazalema mountains were full and could provoke landslides owing to pent-up pressure.
‘This could cause large holes or ditches. If this happens under a house or street, the result could be dramatic,’ Moreno said.
He added geologists were assessing the situation in Grazalema to determine when residents would be able to return to their homes.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who toured the affected areas of Andalusia by helicopter, urged calm: ‘Complex days are ahead because a new front is moving in — another storm, another emergency starting tomorrow. We are experiencing very adverse, very dangerous and very delicate weather conditions, and so I want to make just two appeals: first, for calm; second, for caution.’
Shortly before Sánchez’s statement, which came at 2pm, First Deputy Prime Minister María Jesús Montero announced that more than 8,000 ‘preventive evacuations’ had already been carried out in Andalusia due to the impact of Storm Leonardo. Around 3,400 of these evacuations took place in the city of Jerez, in the province of Cádiz.
Storm Marta, the next weather front in the so-called ‘storm train’, is expected to hit the region over the weekend, according to state weather agency AEMET.
AEMET also issued orange weather alerts on Friday for coastal areas of the north-western region of Galicia and yellow alerts for other parts of the northern coast, and for southern and eastern coastal areas, as well as for the Balearic Islands.
Rubén del Campo, Aemet’s spokesman, said more heavy rain would fall on Saturday.
‘Following a slight let-up on Friday, Storm Marta will arrive, bringing heavy rain and very strong winds on Saturday to areas that have already been very adversely affected by the heavy rains of recent days,’ he said.
‘Once Storm Marta moves off on Sunday, further weather fronts will arrive bringing less intense, but still significant, rainfall to most parts of the peninsula apart from Mediterranean areas.’
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Los efectivos del #CPBMálaga de @diputacionMLG continúan las labores de búsqueda y rastreo de la mujer desaparecida en el río Turvilla de #Sayalonga
Esta mañana las condiciones meteorológicas son algo menos adversas y se reanudan los trabajos dentro del agua #BorrascaLeonardo pic.twitter.com/gk9f4V3S0K— CPB Málaga (@cpbmalaga) February 6, 2026
🔴 Hallan el cuerpo sin vida de la mujer que se tiró a un río para salvar a su perro en Sayalonga, Málaga: el operativo de búsqueda lo ha localizado a un kilómetro del punto en el que desapareció > https://t.co/vhhbXeoCD5 pic.twitter.com/PI7Yr2AN8W
— Informativos Telecinco (@informativost5) February 6, 2026
Quiero trasladar mi reconocimiento a todos los servidores públicos que están día y noche velando por la seguridad de todos los vecinos.
Hemos desplegado más de 10.000 efectivos, en perfecta coordinación con todas las Administraciones.
El Estado estará con los afectados hasta… pic.twitter.com/ekRAd7MqAv
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) February 6, 2026
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