Aemet has issued 36 red climatological alerts for rain in the province of Valencia over the last 10 years

In the last decade alone, Aemet has launched 36 red alerts for extreme rain in the province of Valencia. Although most of these warnings focus on very specific episodes.

For example, the six red alerts corresponding to this year They occurred on the same day, October 29, indicates this newspaper the meteorological agency. In a few hours, DANA devastated the southern bank of the Turia riverbed with particular virulence, killing more than 220 people.

That is, each of these warnings does not necessarily have to correspond to different days. Aemet issued its first red alert at 7:42 a.m. on October 29, valid until the next day, and He repeated it five more times expanding its geographic reach to the entire province throughout this day.

“A lot of caution, the danger is extreme. Only travel if strictly necessary,” Aemet warned on its social networks. “Do not cross rivers or flooded streets, avoid driving, disconnect electricity and gas if you are in a flooded area, follow official instructions and stay informed,” he then collected, reproducing a tweet of Civil Protection.

That day, however, the red alert was also extended to the province of Malaga, where the damage was much less, and on the 31st the same thing happened in the province of Castellón. Some rivers overflowed there, although the effects had nothing to do with those of the DANA which crossed Valencia.

Therefore, what happened that day was something terribly exceptional. A mix of extraordinary rainfall, poorly prepared canal overflows and erratic management.

How to activate a red alert

Aemet red alerts are activated automatically according to standardized protocols. Even if their scales are different depending on the territories.

In the Valencian Community, the red alert, the highest level, must be activated if precipitation exceeds 90 mm – or 90 liters per m² – in one hour or 180 in 12 hours.

To understand the scale of the disaster, October 29 more than 600 liters per m² in some areas of the province, an amount equivalent to what could fall in an entire year.

Aemet spokesperson, Rubén del Campounderlines that “red notices are very rare”. According to their data, they only represent the 0.25% of the total number of warnings – yellow, orange and red – issued in Spain.

During this same decade, in Spain they launched 199 red alertsof which 36 correspond to the province of Valencia. Which means that just under a fifth of these notices are limited to this province.

Last year there was only one red alert in this region, four in 2022 and none in 2021. Besides last week’s disaster, the highest number of warnings was recorded in 2019, when another DANA has occurred with significant consequences, even if they cannot be compared to those of this occasion.

The DANA of 2019

Between September 12 and 14, 2019, floods occurred that extended from the province of Valencia to the region of Murcia. The level of precipitation was similar, although the deceased were “only” six years oldvery far from current figures.

At that time, the alert level gradually moved from orange to red and emergency meetings of the Integrated Operations Coordination Center (Cecopi) took place with 48 hours in advance to the greatest floods.

That year, Aemet launched 14 red alerts due to heavy rains in the province of Valencia -87 in all of Spain-, the majority also on these two days.

The next year in the ranking for the most extreme rain warnings was 2018, when eight more were issued in Valencia. On this occasion, public establishments had to be closed and transport suffered, but there was no major physical damage.

Valencians are therefore used to this type of warning and sometimes fail to change their habits.

Last week, Rubén Campo, from Aemet, admitted to this newspaper: “It’s like the story of Peter and the wolf“. “But when alerts of this type are issued, we must keep in mind that, even if nothing happens afterwards, the alert is intended to warn the population and you never know how many lives can be saved “, he concluded.