MAP. Floods: Spain, Italy, France… in which European countries did bad weather cause the most deaths?

An unrecognizable region, considerable damage, more than 150 dead and several dozen people still missing. Valencia and more generally the south-east of Spain were hit by a real deluge on the night of Tuesday October 29 to Wednesday October 30. On site, the alert has still not been lifted, particularly in the Castellón region, where intense rains were still expected this Thursday, October 31.

But already, images showing cars piled up in the middle of degraded roads and homes, some of them completely collapsed, are being broadcast. Spain and Europe beyond have undoubtedly just experienced one of the deadliest rainy episodes in recent decades.

Also read:
Deadly floods in Spain: why was the alert issued to the population so late?

This has been characteristic of European countries for several years. According to the specialized organization I investthe number of extreme weather events – hailstorms, heavy rains, snowfalls, droughts and tornadoes – increased from 11 442 has 16 956 per year in Europe, between 2021 and 2023. For its part, the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) at the University of Louvain has developed a database which lists all the natural disasters which have been observed around the world.

In Europe, after this rainy episode, Spain will probably be the European country most affected by bad weather over the last sixty years. Before the flood which hit the Valencia region, 846 people were victims of bad weather on the other side of the Pyrenees. Historically, Spain was hit by extraordinary rains in 1973, causing the death of more than 500 people. Next in this sad ranking is Italy, where 884 people have died in violent floods over the past 60 years. In Romania, these violent episodes caused the death of 719 people.

We also remember the case of Germany – and more broadly Central Europe – which were hit in 2021 by devastating bad weather such as the region had not experienced for more than a century and a half. The episode alone caused 126 deaths. Germany, for its part, has recorded 279 deaths linked to floods over the last 60 years.

France comes in 7th position in this ranking: 291 people died due to this type of disaster in the same period of time. For example, the Aude department still bears the scars of the violence of these phenomena: in 2018, the department was hit by record floods, causing the death of 15 people.