Snow and the heat dome: the week in Mallorca

What an extraordinary week that was. There was barely a mention of travel traffic lights, and when there was, the British Consul General, Lloyd Milen, let President Armengol know that he believed the situation was "favourable". If things continue as they are, then "the British can continue to come here on holiday".

So presumably things will continue to be amber. However, there was a report knocking around about the percentage of travellers from Spain who test positive after arriving in the UK - 2.9% as opposed to, for instance, 1.5% for Greece and under one per cent for France. The next traffic-light date is the twenty-fifth. Plenty of time for revived speculation therefore.

The heat dome

With the green, amber, red chat ominously quiet, we could turn our attention instead to one of the main reasons why holidaymakers come to Mallorca - the weather. The heat dome hovering over our heads was not visible, but meteorologists assured us that there was one. Like a lid on a pot came the explanation, trapping a very warm air mass.

Very warm? They weren't kidding. Red was flashing on consecutive days, this being the red of the Aemet met agency rather than the UK government. Orange (as opposed to amber) was the dominant Aemet heat traffic light for Mallorca. It came as something of a relief that it wasn't red, what with Sicily having apparently knocked out a 48.8C.

Snow in August

In this sort of heat, it was amazing that anyone would wish to exert themselves, but Instagram was calling, and so this week's instalment of Catherine Zeta-Jones in Majorca featured her hula hooping. We also discovered, and more relevant to her career, that Catherine will be taking the role of Morticia in Tim Burton's Addams Family series for Netflix - called Wednesday rather than The Addams Family.

Disappointment there will probably be, as Wednesday is unlikely to be filmed in Mallorca, making it one of the few Netflix productions not to be. One of these, Hustle, stars Adam Sandler, who found himself in a most peculiar situation last week. With the heat dome over Puerto Pollensa's Gotmar area, there was a covering of snow - fake and fully biodegradable - for a scene from the film.

La Marseillaise in Magalluf

Returning to the Consul General, full backing was given to the Balearic government's efforts to eradicate tourism of excesses. The fullness of this backing was "one hundred per cent", stated Lloyd Milen, who expressed concern at recent images of bad behaviour. Which images might the Consul General have had in mind? Did they, for instance, include one particular Magalluf video that was in circulation?

This was on the Bulletin's website, as it was on others. While The Bulletin said "Police disperse Magalluf crowd" and made no mention of Brits, The Sun enticed readers with a video headline that read "Armed cops clear hundreds of bladdered Brits off Magalluf's infamous Punta Ballena party strip". Close study of the video revealed very little evidence of cops, who would of course always be armed, and therefore equally little evidence of bladdered Brits being cleared, while the bladdered Brits were oddly enough chanting the French national anthem.

Deya and its street-drinking ban

Excesses had in the meantime made their way from the Calvia coast to the Tramuntana. The mayor of Deya, Lluís Apesteguia, made it clear that anyone who breaks regulations, disturbs residents' peace and put people's health at risk was not welcome in the village.

There had been "botellones" before, but nothing like this summer, and so drinking in the streets was banned at all times of day and night and the drinking of alcohol on bar terraces occupying the public way was also banned. This only affected a couple of bars, but one of them has apparently been the focus for large gatherings of people at night.