On April Fool’s Day it is sometimes difficult to tell what is true and what is false, but despite many jokes on social media about snow in Benidorm, there is actually a lot of snow in northern and parts of eastern Spain and the Balearic Islands at the moment.

Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, La Rioja and especially Navarre woke up this morning to a blanket of snow and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had to cancel his planned visit to the National Renewable Energy Center in Sarriguren today , in Navarre.

We have a name to blame for that: Storm Ciril, an Atlantic front that brought a cold airflow sweeping across much of the country.

The biggest problems have been on roads in Cantabria and Navarre, and on Thursday traffic authorities warned drivers to check road conditions before traveling as tires will need to be fitted with snow chains in some cases . In Asturias, Aragon, Cantabria, Castile and León and Catalonia, the Ministry of Transport had already prepared 826 snowploughs to clear the roads today.

Meteorologists say this snowy weather will be short and concentrated in these areas, but it will be followed by a drastic drop in temperatures over the next few days. In some places, winds are expected to be strong, with gusts of up to 100 km/h, coastal storms and intense rain.