Floods Ravage Spain Shortly After Severe Summer Heatwaves

Torrential rains on the night of 29 October flooded southern and eastern Spain, with 12 inches falling in just a few hours.

The flash floods destroyed bridges and inundated highways and towns. The severe flash floods killed close to 100 people as of writing, with dozens more missing. Valencia was the worst affected region, with 92 people killed; two died in Castile-La-Mancha and one person in Andalusia.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles described the flooding as an “unprecedented phenomenon” (Kent et al., 2024).

Climate change and extreme weather events

Climate change is boosting extreme weather. Scientists are detecting a stronger link between the planet’s warming and changing weather patterns. As Earth’s climate changes, it is impacting extreme weather across the globe.

Record-breaking heat waves on land and in the ocean, drenching rains, severe floods, years-long droughts, extreme wildfires, and widespread flooding during hurricanes are all becoming more frequent and intense.

“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ‘s Sixth Assessment Report”, released in 2021, shows that the rise in GHG emissions from human activities has made extreme weather events more frequent and intense. As the planet warms, the risk of these extreme weather events will increase.

Climate change influence on Spain’s flash floods

According to UNEP, the Mediterranean region is warming 20% faster than the global average. The area is home to more than 510 million people. Rising temperatures will increase up to 20% of heavy rainfall events outside the summer season, leading to floods.

Dr Friederike Otto, Lead of World Weather Attribution at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, believes that the “explosive downpours were intensified by climate change.” Adding that every degree of warming increases the amounts of moisture in the atmosphere, leading to heavier rainfall, pointing out how dangerous climate change is that just a 1.3°C of warming led to Spain’s deadly floods. Otto also notes in the UN warming that the planet is on track to a 3.1°C of warming by 2100 (McGrath, 2024).

Dr Jess Neumann, Associate Professor of Hydrology at the University of Reading, says that the flash floods in Spain result from climate change (Best, 2024).

During this summer, extreme heat and wildfires have also affected the Mediterranean region.

Three months ago, Spain, Portugal, France, Greece, Italy, and Morocco experienced extreme heat in July 2024, leading to 23 deaths and widespread wildfires. As the planet warms, these extreme heatwaves are projected to occur more often than without climate change. The July heatwave caused at least 21 deaths in Morocco after temperatures reached 48°C.

Wildfires in Greece followed record temperatures in July and June 2024. By 12 August, the fire had affected 100,000 acres (405 sq km).

Droughts and floods are the two sides of the same climate change coin,” says Stefano Materia, an Italian climate scientist at Barcelona Supercomputing Centre. Studies have linked droughts in the Mediterranean to rising temperatures caused by climate change, which severely heated the region (Niranjan, 2024).

“That means more energy, more water vapour, more instability – all ingredients fuelling terrifying storms when atmospheric conditions are favourable,” he said. “The Mediterranean Sea is a timebomb these days” (Niranjan, 2024).

Early warnings and resilient infrastructure

BBC reports that the lack of accurate warnings has affected people’s preparations for the floods. “Warnings can be a lifesaver in helping people to seek higher ground and safety before a flood. However, as we have seen in Spain today, it is incredibly hard to issue warnings for intense thunderstorms because the location of the heaviest rainfall is often not known in advance,” said Dr Linda Speight from the University of Oxford.

Flooding in Spain has also highlighted the inability of its modern infrastructure to cope with extreme flooding events. The article says that infrastructure like bridges, streets, and roads were designed for the previous century’s climate, not the current one.