The resulting extreme precipitation 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 Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET) 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.
As of 29 October 2024, the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) has been activated to provide mapping of flood extent, monitoring and damage classification.
