Bilbao floods: 150 incidents as storm hits old town

Torrential rain flooded the centre of Bilbao on the evening of Saturday 3 October 2026, with the heaviest storm hitting around 7pm and water reaching knee height in some streets of the Casco Viejo, the historic old town, reports the Basque outlet naiz.eus. Working from agency copy, Infobae puts a number on the chaos: the SOS Deiak emergency coordination centre logged roughly 150 rain-related incidents in Bizkaia before 8.30pm, 137 of them in Bilbao alone. That is why the story is climbing Spain's search trends today.

On how much rain actually fell, naiz.eus gives station-by-station readings: 60.3 l/m2 at Abusu, 60.2 l/m2 at Sangroniz, 34.4 mm at Larrainazubi and 27.6 mm at Zorrotza. Keep in mind that the outlets don't agree on one overall total for the city, so treat any single headline figure with caution. The same outlet notes that the Basque weather agency Euskalmet kept an orange alert in place until midnight, then dropped it to yellow until 6am on Sunday. El Diario Vasco adds that neighbouring Gipuzkoa was also under a yellow warning for heavy rain the same day.

Infobae's account focuses on the response on the ground: municipal police and Bilbao firefighters were called out again and again from 7pm, mostly in the old town, and two street-cleaning trucks were brought in to work through the night. Both Infobae and naiz.eus mention that Askao street, one of the ways into the Casco Viejo, was closed to traffic, and that shopkeepers nailed wooden boards across their doorways to keep the water out. One detail only naiz.eus reports: a performance at the Teatro Arriaga was called off because of the weather.

The disruption reached well beyond the city centre, according to naiz.eus. The tunnels on the La Avanzada road at Leioa were shut because of flooding, the Bilbao-Miranda rail line was affected, and incidents were recorded in Barakaldo, Basauri, Getxo, Galdakao, Sestao, Erandio and Leioa, plus a lightning strike in Laudio (Araba). None of the outlets reviewed here reports any injuries or evacuations linked to the Bilbao flooding. If you're heading to the Basque Country, check Euskalmet's latest warnings before you travel.

Sources : naiz.eus, Infobae, El Diario Vasco, Euskalmet, Google Trends.