The recent extreme precipitations in Spain have caused terrible loss of life and critical damage in several regions of the country. We would like to express our support to the communities, the rescue workers and all those working to help those affected by the disaster. Our thoughts are also with OurMED partners Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and Idrica.
⚠️ℹ️ Last week Spain was hit by an upper-tropospheric cut-off low (DANA in Spanish). The resulting extreme precipitation has led to severe floods in the Valencia region. In several areas, over 300 litres of water per square meter fell down in one night with an all-time high of 670 litres per square meter in the municipality of Turís. The AEMET - Agencia Estatal de Meteorología has registered numbers showing that DANA brought a year’s worth of precipitation in less than four hours. In the following days, heavy rainfalls have also hit the regions of Cataluña, Andalucía and Extremadura. While DANA is a natural occurring phenomenon in the Mediterranean, the intensity and frequency witnessed in the past decade are directly related to the warming of the atmosphere which allows for increasingly important humidity retention and provokes extreme rainfall when the vapour is released. Such extreme events are becoming more and more common thus requiring strong adaptation plans and safety measures. In the past few days, numerous lives were lost, and considerable damage was done to homes and infrastructures. Our thoughts are with the populations affected and the rescue teams mobilised, particularly in hard-hit areas such as Valencia. 🔗 Sources and data: As of 29 October 14.30 UTC, the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) has been activated to provide mapping of flood extent, monitoring and damage classification. The updated situational reporting is available here: https://lnkd.in/ephgM7Xx Further information regarding collected precipitation data in Valencia is available here: https://lnkd.in/d3cA-G_p Further information on daily registered precipitations per region is available here: https://lnkd.in/daVjN--H An intervention for À Punt (Valencian broadcasting) by Mediterranean Network of Basin Organisations (MENBO) coordinator Ramiro Martínez Costa, is available here (13’ to 35’): https://lnkd.in/dgVNsXHQ Image below: Copernicus map of the flood situation in the ‘Horta Sud’ Area of Interest in the Valencia Region on 31 October at 10:22 UTC (source: https://lnkd.in/dwrptCt8) #DANA #ExtremePrecipitations #Floods #Spain #News #UTSEMIDE