(Partido Popular, PP), with only 8 elected seats, lost the majority. On April he resigned due to various judicial issues and was temporarily substituted by the councillor Eva Montesinos. In the previous municipal elections of May 2011, Sonia Castedo of People's Party won the elections with an absolute majority, but resigned in December 2014 due to her involvement in several corruption scandals, at present being under investigation. Her fellow party member Miguel Valor went on to become mayor up until Echávarri's election. Climate Alicante has mild winter temperatures, hot summers, and little rain, concentrated in equinoctial periods. Like the rest of the Province of Alicante itself, which has a range of dry climate types, the city has a hot semi-arid climate (BSh) according to the Köppen climate classification. Daily variations in temperature are generally small because of the stabilising influence of the sea, although occasional periods of westerly wind can produce temperature changes of or more. Seasonal temperature variations are also relatively small, meaning that winters are mild and summers are hot. The average rainfall is per year. The cold drop means that September and October are the wettest months. Rarely, the rainfall can be torrential, reaching over in a 24-hour period, leading to severe flooding. Because of this irregularity, only 35 rainy days are observed on average per year, and the annual number of sunshine hours is 2,851. The record maximum temperature of was observed on 13 August 2022. The record minimum temperature of was recorded on 12 February 1956. The worst flooding in modern history occurred on 30 September 1997 when of rain fell within six hours. Temperatures below are very rare; the last recorded snowfall occurred in 1926. Alicante enjoys one of the sunniest and warmest winter daytime temperatures in mainland Europe. Demographics The official population of Alicante in 2020 was 337,482 inhabitants and 768,194 in the metropolitan area "Alicante-Elche". As of 2020, about 20–25% of the population is foreign, most of them immigrants from North Africa, South America and Eastern Europe. Leading by Algeria (9,258), Colombia (8,525), Morocco (5,696), Argentina (5,583), Ecuador (3,800) and Venezuela (3,698) who have arrived in the previous 20 years. There are also important amounts of immigrants from other countries such as Russia (3,012), France (2,460), Ukraine (2,277), Romania (1,858), China (1,833), Cuba, (1,628), Brazil (1,231), Italy (1,164), Uruguay (1,061) and Paraguay, Bolivia, Germany, United Kingdom and Dominican Republic. There is an