Valencia’s ground zero, once again threatened with flooding

The arrival of a new DANA (Isolated depression at high levels) in Spain, two weeks after the devastating events of October 29 in Valencia. reactivated reviews on the peninsular Mediterranean slope and the Balearic archipelago. THE The Meteorological Agency (Aemet) specifies that this will be a phenomenon “short-lived” compared to its predecessor, but it will cause “very heavy and even torrential” rains in Andalusia, the Balearics and the Valencian Community, where accumulations of up to 100-120 liters in the next twelve hours.

Aemet activated the red notice on Tuesday evening in the province of Málaga and Tarragona. Likewise, orange alerts (significant danger) have been active since Tuesday also in the Balearic Islands, Valencia and Alicante due to “very heavy rain” in areas still under control. very saturated for the previous storm. Aemet asks not to approach ravines and ravines even if they are currently empty, because “their flow can increase rapidly.” The DANA will sink deeper into the Mediterranean and become BFA (isolated cold storm) off the coast of Portugal, from where it will send air cold and rain to the Iberian Peninsula, and snow on the summits.

“The big difference is that this time, DANA will move quickly,” he explains. Samuel BienerWeather expert, in EL ESPAÑOL. “The one from Valencia remained practically static on the Gulf of Cadizwhich made the precipitation very intense and persistent, and it was reactivated in the same area, at the epicenter of Turís. “Although the unfavorable episode will last until the weekend, “this drop in cold will be a rapid development”, reaching the coasts of Cape San Vicente in the early hours of Thursday.

A slower DANA would have had as great a destructive potential as the one at the end of October, Biener warns, because the waters of the Mediterranean are still very warm. “Especially in the western basin, with values between 3 and 3 and a half degrees above average“. This warm humidity accentuated the storms which mainly affected the Balearic Islands on Tuesday.

This Wednesday they are expected very heavy and locally torrential rain In Malagawhere you can overcome the 180 liters per square meter and even 200 L/m2 depending on persistence according to certain models. In the south coast of Valencia and the north coast of Alicante are expected 100 liters per square meter. Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and the Valencian Community are in orange with up to 40 liters in one hour.

According to Civil Protection, a total of ten autonomous communities They issue warnings about rain, storms, snowfall and coastal winds. These are Andalusia, the Principality of Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Castile and León, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, the Region of Murcia and the Community Valencian.

The rains could also be torrential in the coast of Granada, north coast of Valencia, coast of Castellón and south coast of Tarragonaand less intense on the rest of the Catalan coast. This will be due, Biener illustrates, to the BFA’s location in the lower western corner of the peninsula and its interaction with warm winds from the Levant and the coastal mountain range. “In Malaga and Granada May Rivers in the region are experiencing significant flooding“, he explains. “But we do not exclude that 200 L/m2 will also be exceeded in other regions of the East and even in the Balearic Islands. “

The drop in temperatures will favor snowfall in the high altitudes of the mountain systems, and strong winds will blow on the Atlantic and Cantabrian slopes. The rains will continue on Thursday, with accumulations up to 80 L/m2and locally up to 120 L/m2in western Andalusia, the strip of the Mediterranean between the Ebro delta and the cape of the Nao, the center of the peninsula and the southern slope of the central system. TAlso Heavy and persistent rain is expected in Murcia and the southern plateau. From Friday, the precipitation will lose intensity.

Reactivation of floods

According to Biener, the “most complicated” situation in the province of Valencia is expected in the regions of The Safor and the Albaida Valleyas well as in the north of Alicante. More than 150 liters per square meter, or locally 200, are expected, but on this occasion they could even “be very well received” in the area, due to the rainfall deficit and the meteorological drought situation that they are experiencing. These torrential episodes would fall within the normal range of climate and orography.

Nevertheless, calls for caution Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning. The training of static storms in points of the pre-coastal Valencia, which “could spill into the area most affected by flooding”. If that happens, he says, “we have to remember that with clogged drains and waterlogged soil It doesn’t have to rain a lot for flooding to recur.“However, if the forecasts come true, the largest accumulations are expected further away, south of the Gulf of Valencia.