After a week of largely sunny weather,  and temperatures as high as 20 Celsius (68F), conditions on the Costa del Sol slowly deteriorated after the 23rd as a succession of fairly weak fronts brought progressively colder air from northern Europe. On the morning of the 25th it was sunny in Malaga, but a small, and quite intense, area of low pressure over eastern Biscay (Figure 1.) was preceding an incursion into Spain of even colder air.  

The afternoon became cloudy in Malaga (Figure 2.) as the fronts marched south. Outbreaks of rain followed, although generally amounts were small, typically 2 or 3mm (0.1 inches). On the rear edge of the rapidly occluding frontal system a cold undercut of air combined with an intensification of the precipitation and produced heavy snow in places down to 400m (1300ft) AMSL.

Both the airports serving Granada (567 and 700m AMSL) reported heavy snow between 16 and 18UTC. Snow was responsible for briefly closing the road from Estepona to Jubrique, but the heaviest snow appears to have fallen in the Alpujarra area to the northeast of Motril. Even at Almeria Airport  (15m AMSL) the temperature fell to 3 Celsius (37F) during the evening of the 25th with sleet observed in the higher suburbs of that City.

By midnight on the 26th, the colder air had reached all of southern Spain (Figure 3.) and the last of the cloud and precipitation was clearing away from the southeast of Andalucia.

Figure 1. 00UTC 25 January 2007 Surface Analysis                                  UK Met Office Crown Copyright	Figure 2. IR Satellite Image 12UTC 25 January 2007                                                    copyright 2007 EUMETSAT
Figure 3. 00UTC 26 January 2007 Surface Analysis                                  UK Met Office Crown Copyright	Figure 4. IR Satellite Image 00UTC 26 January 2007                                                    copyright 2007 EUMETSAT

In the Cold Air
The upper-air sounding from Gibraltar (Figure 5.) shows deep cold air, unstable to the sea temperatures in the western Mediterranean of around 16 Celsius (61F), but the profile is also very dry, and in reality showers during the day were fairly limited. Of interest, is the low wet-bulb freezing level (an assumed point between the dry bulb and dew point lines on the ascent)  which confirm a freezing level of 400m (1300 ft) or lower. 

The 1000-500mb thickness of just 526 decametres was within the 'blue line' often, but unwisely, used as an indicator of snow on weather maps (522 Dam is the more reliable, but less easily found, predictor of precipitation containing snow.) 

Figure 5. Skew-T Log-P upper-air profile for Gibraltar at 12UTC on 26 January 2007                                                                                       Copyright of University of Wyoming

Changes begin to occur
As the skiers enjoyed the bumper snowfall in the Sierra Nevada (Figure 6) changes were on the way emanating from a depression moving northeast from the Canary Islands ( bottom left-hand corner of Figure 7.)  Meanwhile the sub-528Dam cold pool over southern Spain was beginning to be squeezed from the north by the effects of the wrap-around occlusion,  shown in Figure 7 by the white cloud curving away southeastwards from southern Spain, and by the warm advection  commencing in southern Morocco.

Not surprisingly, the night of the 26th/27th was unusually cold under the clear skies within the cold pool. At Gibraltar the temperature fell to 4.5 Celsius (40F) with a thunderstorm and hail at breakfast time to add to the  feeling of winter.
On the outskirts of Jerez  the minimum was  minus 3 Celsius (27F) and that is 9 degrees C (16F) below the January night-time average. 

Figure 6. Sierra Nevada Ski Resort after a fresh fall of snow

Figure 7. IR Satellite Image 00UTC 27 January 2007                                                    copyright 2007 EUMETSAT

East of Malaga - The Wind Strengthens
Malaga had a fairly pleasant January day on the 27th. There was plenty of sunshine, and although a chilly breeze developed from the sea during the afternoon temperatures reached 13 Celsius (55F). As the occluded front over southern Spain moved slowly south (Figures 8 and 9), so the cloud thickened from the north. Outbreaks of rain followed, but only amounting to about 3 mm (0.1 ins) in total. The wind remained innocuous in Malaga but a moderate or fresh east to northeast breeze developed as early as the morning of the 27th at San Javier (Murcia) Airport , where gusts of 40 knots (46mph) were recorded, and the afternoon of the 27th at Almeria. 

The Storm - Malaga Airport
There was even a short northwesterly land breeze, or perhaps a discrete circulation on the southwestward advancing occlusion,  in the early hours of the 28th at Malaga Airport before the windy weather began in earnest.  A wind of westerly 10 kn (11mph) at 00UTC became east-southeasterly 19 kn (22 mph) gust 29 kn (33 mph) at 01UTC. 
From 03UTC gusts regularly exceeded 40 kn (46 mph) at Malaga Airport culminating in a mean speed of 35 kn (40mph) gusting 52 knots (59 mph)  at 0530UTC. The wind continued to gust over 40 kn (46 mph) until 11UTC although a strong wind persisted until evening. The coast fared far worse. 
An unofficial weather station near the beach west of Malaga recorded a mean wind speed of 43 kn (49mph) with gusts to 61 knots (70 mph) between 07 and 10UTC.

Aftermath - Malaga beaches affected
The wind abated almost as quickly as it strengthened, and late on the evening of the 28th it was calm in many places. Beaches were lost to the sea east of Malaga with huge boulders hurled on to promenades. Many trees were uprooted, tiles were dislodged, and scaffolding was blown down.
Fortunately, the event occurred on a Sunday, when roads and pedestrian areas were quiet, so it appears that no fatalities were directly related to the weather. Perhaps a surprising statistic given the force of the wind.

Figure 8. 00UTC 27 January 2007 Surface Analysis                                  UK Met Office Crown Copyright	Figure 9. 00UTC 28 January 2007 Surface Analysis                                  UK Met Office Crown Copyright
Figure 10. 00UTC 29 January 2007 Surface Analysis                                  UK Met Office Crown Copyright	Figure 11. IR Satellite Image 06UTC 28 January 2007                                                    copyright 2007 EUMETSAT

Conclusion about the storm in Malaga
The short-lived (less than 18 hours) wind event that brought considerable destruction to the Costa del Sol was caused by a combination of events that conspired to produce a pattern of wind more familiar perhaps to those on the south coast of Iceland or the southern tip of Greenland.

Firstly, the cold snap produced substantial snow cover along the length of the Sierra Nevada down to quite low levels.
Secondly the marked pressure rise across central and northern Spain, shown by comparing Figures 8 and 9,  tightened the gradient to the north of the occlusion.
Thirdly, as the occlusion slipped south into the Mediterranean the gradient was further boosted by the steep local temperature contrast  between the snow-covered mountains and the relatively warm sea, and fourthly the northeastward spread of a weather system from the Canaries, belatedly shown on surface charts (Figure 10.) and more obvious at higher levels on satellite pictures (Figure 11.) inhibited the further displacement south of cold air and acted as a barrier across which the gradient could not weaken. It was only when surface warm advection sent the old surface discontinuity north of Malaga in the evening that the winds then died down.

Although it is inevitable that strong winds will occur occasionally when weather systems interact between high mountains and warm seas,  it is hoped that this particular sequence of events will not be repeated for many years to come.