In three weeks, Catalonia went from a warning to two deaths.
16 September: the warning shot. Meteocat alert for more than 40 litres in half an hour around Barcelona; the flood plan on alert.
29 September: Barcelona under water. Red alert for rain intensity in the morning, phones buzzing with ES-Alert. The Raval station collected 192.8 litres per square metre, which would be double its previous record in 20 years of data (I’ve only seen that figure in one source: take it with care). The Ronda de Dalt was cut for two hours, six metro lines were disrupted, about a hundred flights cancelled. In L’Hospitalet the three underpasses between Santa Eulàlia and Bellvitge flooded, including the one on Avinguda del Carrilet, the same avenue a downburst had smashed in July (The L’Hospitalet downburst). In Gavà, firefighters pulled a woman and a baby out of a car under water.
2 to 4 October: the big one. For the first time ever, Protecció Civil had all three rain thresholds at maximum at once (30 minutes, 3 hours, 24 hours). Vilassar de Mar got 288 litres per square metre in a few hours; Mataró, Granollers and Cabrils over 230. Two people died, in Tordera and in Montornès del Vallès, and a young man was swept away by a riera in Pineda de Mar. 385 flights cancelled, thirteen Rodalies lines stopped.
Written on 4 October, with the episode still going on, so the numbers may change.
It’s the same Mediterranean that produced The Valencia DANA in 2024: warm sea, cold air on top.
https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/cap-de-setmana-marcat-per-la-pluja-on-hi-ha-alertes-actives/