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WEATHER

Valencia experiences rainiest day in May on record

The city of Valencia experienced on Tuesday May 3rd the rainiest day in May since records began, during what's already proving to be the wettest spring in history in the eastern city and region.

Published: 4 May 2022 10:21 CEST
flooding in the region of Valencia
Valencia experienced the rainiest day in May on record. Photo: CESAR MANSO / AFP

A total of 145.4 l/m2 of rain fell in just 24 hours in Valencia city, the largest amount in the month of May since 1871.

The rains have already caused numerous problems for traffic, the city’s metro and tram systems due to the flooding.  

rainiest day in May in Valencia

Accumulated rainfall in 24 hours between 5am on May 3rd to 5am on May 4th. Source: AEMET
 

According to Spain’s State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), the rainstorm was accompanied by lightning and conditions are expected to continue throughout today, May 4th.

Aemet reported that by 10pm on Tuesday night, 181 l/m2 of rain had been collected at the Viveros observatory in Valencia, 122 l/m2 at Valencia airport, 121 l/m2 in Sagunto, 96 l/m2 in El Puig and 82 l/m2 in Castelló de la Plana.

Spain’s national weather agency reported prior to Tuesday’s downpour that this has been the rainiest spring in the Valencia region on record, “even if not a single more drop fell” .

Since March 3rd when the rainfall began, except for “brief pauses in April, it has almost not stopped raining” .

graph of rainfall in Valencia

The amount of spring precipitation in the Valencia region in 2022 is much higher than in previous years. Source: AEMET

Valencia city was one of the worst affected places

The capital of the Valencia region was the worst-hit area, with the deluge flooding homes and cutting off numerous roads.  

The tunnels of Hermanos Machado (Ronda Norte), Primado Reig/Peset Aleixandre and Clariano and the roads of Farinós and Vera, as well as in Ingeniero Fausto Elio were all closed to traffic due to the floods and some continue to be so on May 4th. 

The maritime neighbourhoods of Malvarrosa and Cabanyal were two of the worst affected with rainfall inundating the ground floor of numerous homes.

According to the Valencian Meteorological Association (Avamet), these coastal areas of ​​the city, experienced more than 200 litres of rain per square metre, in just a few hours. 

The Universitat Politècnica de València has also suspended all face-to-face lessons on the Vera campus this Wednesday, May 4th, because of the floods.  

Emergency services were called

Local Police sources said that since 8pm on May 3rd when the storm has become torrential, they received 94 emergency calls due to problems caused by the rains.  

The Provincial Firefighters Consortium also became involved when they rescued three people whose vehicle had been trapped by the water in Paterna. In total, they have also answered 50 emergency calls, mostly related to rescuing people and flooded roads.

The Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat has updated its warnings and has issued a new bulletin on meteorological risks, specifically pre-emergency due to orange-level rains on the south coast of Castellón and the north coast of Valencia.

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WEATHER

Europe swelters under record-breaking heatwave

Forest fires are raging, animals are suffering and humans are sweating as Europe grapples with one of the most intense heatwaves ever recorded.

Published: 18 June 2022 18:43 CEST
Europe swelters under record-breaking heatwave

France and other western European nations on Saturday sweltered under a blistering June heatwave that has sparked forest fires and concerns that such early summer blasts of hot weather will now become the norm.

The weather on Saturday was the peak of a June heatwave that is in line with scientists’ predictions that such phenomena will now strike earlier in the year thanks to global warming.

The French southwestern town of Biarritz, one of the country’s most sought-after seaside resorts, saw its highest all time temperature Saturday of 41 degrees, state forecaster Meteo France said.

Queues of hundreds of people and traffic jams formed outside aquatic leisure parks in France, with people seeing water as the only refuge from the devastating heat.

With the River Seine off limits to bathing, scorched Parisians took refuge in the city’s fountains.   

Temperatures in France could reach as high as 42C in some areas on Saturday, Meteo France said, adding that June records had already been beaten in 11 areas on Friday.

“This is the earliest heatwave ever recorded in France” since 1947, said Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at Meteo France.

With “many monthly or even all-time temperature records likely to be beaten in several regions,” he called the weather a “marker of climate change”.

Forest fires rage

In a major incident in France, a fire triggered by the firing of an artillery shell in military training in the Var region of southern France was burning some 200 hectares (495 acres) of vegetation, local authorities said.

“There is no threat to anyone except 2,500 sheep who are being evacuated and taken to safety,” said local fire brigade chief Olivier Pecot.

The fire came from the Canjeurs military camp, the biggest such training site in Western Europe. Fire services’ work was impeded by the presence of non-exploded munitions in the deserted area but four Canadair plans have been deployed to water bomb the fires.

Farmers in the country are having to adapt.

Daniel Toffaloni, a 60-year-old farmer near the southern city of Perpignan, now only works from “daybreak until 11.30am” and in the evening, as temperatures in his tomato greenhouses reach a sizzling 55 degrees C.

Forest fires in Spain on Saturday had burned nearly 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of land in the north-west Sierra de la Culebra region.

The flames forced several hundred people from their homes, and 14 villages were evacuated.

Some residents were able to return on Saturday morning, but regional authorities warned the fire “remains active”.

Firefighters were still battling blazes in several other regions, including woodlands in Catalonia.

Temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) were forecast in parts of the country on Saturday — with highs of 43 degrees C expected in the north-eastern city of Zaragoza.

There have also been fires in Germany, where temperatures topped 40C on Saturday. A blaze in the Brandenburg region around Berlin had spread over about 60 hectares by Friday evening.

Foretaste of future

Dutch authorities said they expect Saturday to be the hottest day of the year so far.

The UK recorded its hottest day of the year on Friday, with temperatures reaching over 30 degrees C in the early afternoon, meteorologists said.

“I think at the moment people are just enjoying it being hot but if it gets any hotter than this, which I think it is meant to, then that’s a concern,” said Claire Moran, an editor in London.

Several towns in northern Italy have announced water rationing and the Lombardy region may declare a state of emergency as a record drought threatens harvests.

Italy’s dairy cows were putting out 10 percent less milk, the main agricultural association, Coldiretti, said Saturday.

With temperatures far above the cows’ “ideal climate” of 22-24C, animals were drinking up to 140 litres of water per day, double their normal intake, and producing less due to stress, it said.

Experts warned the high temperatures were caused by worrying climate change trends.

“As a result of climate change, heatwaves are starting earlier,” said Clare Nullis, a spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva.

“What we’re witnessing today is unfortunately a foretaste of the future” if concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to rise and push global warming towards 2 degrees C from pre-industrial levels, she added.

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