Climate change caused by human-generated gas emissions is turning the rains in Spain into much more violent precipitation: this means more torrential precipitation in which a lot of water falls in a short time. This is exactly what happened this Tuesday in the Valencian Community, Castile-La Mancha and Andalusia. At least 51 people died.
The data doesn’t lie: climate change is changing the way it rains. The Mediterranean regions of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, areas where DANAS or cold drops usually fall, now receive “19% more precipitation per episode of torrential rain” than in the 1960s, according to a compilation by the spokesperson de l’Aemet, Rubén. del Campo in a paper on the observed effects of climate change. These areas are most affected by flooding and inundation after storms.
This is not the only scientific source. The climate crisis has caused a fourfold increase in the intensity of precipitation over the last 50 years in Spain, as demonstrated by a recent data analysis carried out by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. The increase was noted both in episodes of heavy rain (which reached 30 mm of precipitation) and in those of torrential rain (whose threshold is set at 60 mm). In this DANA, 200 mm were reached in general and in the town of Utiel, for example, 400 mm were exceeded.
Evidence has accumulated from heavy rains, flooding, damage and casualties. In the Mediterranean area, not only have more intense rains been detected, but these extreme episodes “occur more frequently than in previous decades”, explain the Aemet analyses. Meteorologist Peio Oria studied the time series of precipitation in Mediterranean Spain in 2021 to conclude that there is “an increase in frequency and intensification of situations that cause very heavy or torrential rain of significant magnitude” .
To put a face to the scientific findings, Aemet described the DANA that hit the southeast of the peninsula (Vega Baja del Segura) in September 2019 as a storm “unprecedented in the last 100 years.” But only five years later, Aemet herself believes that what we are experiencing in the Mediterranean is “the most harmful cold drop of the century” in the Valencian Community.
Scientists are always cautious when it comes to attributing a specific weather episode to climate change, but the same Aemet office in Valencia said this Wednesday that “it is not possible that the temperature of the air and sea increases and everything else remains the same. “We are on a warmer planet with more energy availability. »
In other words, global warming generated by greenhouse gases fuels more energy, because it is the heat that is retained by the gases, the storms. When a storm comes, it has more force to unleash, meaning more torrential rain to dump.
In the towns of Utiel, Alfafar, Algimet, Letur and other municipalities, the expressions of “what has never been seen before” or “something like this has never happened” were repeated, even if data shows this is becoming more common and more likely to repeat in a short period of time. This is the new climate reality.
