Barcelona on red alert
Certainly, on Monday morning, the Spanish meteorological agency (Aemet) assured that the “meteorological crisis” situation had ended in the Valencia region. But it placed Barcelona and its metropolitan area, 350 kilometers further north, on red alert, where torrential rains began to fall.
In the greater Barcelona area, commuter train traffic was suspended and a crisis committee established at Barcelona-El Prat international airport, where around fifteen flights were diverted.
Tarragona flooded at night
During the night from Sunday to Monday, it was the turn of Tarragona, also in Catalonia, to find itself under water. Stationary storms have dumped nearly 200 mm of precipitation since midnight, according to the local daily Diarri de Tarragona, or several weeks of rain in a few hours, transforming the streets into rivers and causing mudslides.
Dana phenomenon and global warming
The rains which have fallen on Spain since last week are due to a cold drop (altitude depression associated with cold air) which came to slide over the near Atlantic to center on Tuesday October 29 on the northern Morocco. This weather phenomenon is called “DANA” (acronym for depresion aislada en niveles alto, or isolated high-level depression in French).
