On the night of October 29-30, violent flooding following unprecedented rains devastated the Valencia region on Spain’s east coast, killing at least 220 people. The death toll makes it Europe’s worst flood-related disaster since 1967. The number of missing people has not yet been calculated.
This damage is partly due to delays in issuing warnings by local authorities and lack of coordination with the Met Office and central government. The latter deployed 10,000 police and soldiers to clear debris and search for missing people, with thousands of volunteers also helping.
The intensity of the damage is partly due to the huge amount of water (up to 400 liters per square metre) falling in a short period of time and the high level of urbanization in the area. The first is due to global warming, which is especially noticeable around the Mediterranean Sea. This is a phenomenon in which warm, moist air generated by evaporation meets cold air mass in Northern Europe and turns into rain. This phenomenon is known as a “cold drop.” Or “DANA” in Spanish, which will become more and more frequent in the future.
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