Due to rains in the eastern regions of Spain, city streets were flooded, disrupting traffic.
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Rains hit Spain, suffering from climate change, after the hottest summer in history and an exceptionally warm early September.
The National Meteorological Agency AEMET on Wednesday issued warnings of heavy rain in the eastern regions, briefly declaring the highest “red” level danger in Barcelona due to the threat of flash floods.
Catalonia firefighters reported on the social network “X” that in Olivella, located about 40 km west of Barcelona, they “found the body of a man with no signs of life,” clarifying earlier information from the Civil Protection Administration that a woman was being searched for.
The fire service added that the man was driving a car that was swept away by a flooded creek.
Officials urged residents of the Catalonia and Valencia regions to avoid unnecessary travel and to act with extreme caution, while Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned on the network “X” about “very difficult situations.”
Mass warnings via phone were sent to residents of parts of the provinces of Catalonia, Valencia, and Almeria.
Some metro stations in Barcelona were closed and buses rerouted as some streets were flooded.
Regional train traffic was also disrupted, and flights at Barcelona El Prat airport—the second busiest in Spain—were delayed or canceled.
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Catalonia rescue services reported receiving more than 850 calls related to the rains, which caused more than 500 incidents.
Postponed football matches
In the neighboring Valencia region, affected by the floods of 2024 that killed more than 230 people, the weather monitoring service “Avamet” recorded more than 70 mm of precipitation in several municipalities in just half an hour.
“We rarely saw so much precipitation fall in 30 minutes as fell today in Valencia and surrounding areas,” Avamet wrote on the social network “X.”
Rescue services reported about 478 incidents in the province of Valencia, mostly due to property damage, flooding, and traffic disruptions.
Traffic was suspended on all metro lines in the regional capital, the city airport was closed for several hours due to flooding, and 12 incoming flights were diverted elsewhere, the operator “Aena” said.
The top league football match in Valencia between the city’s Levante and Bilbao’s Athletic was postponed because the pitch and players’ tunnel were flooded.
In the further south Almeria and Murcia regions, classes were suspended in more than 20 municipalities on Thursday as a precaution.
Scientists say that human-driven climate change strengthens Mediterranean storms, which usually hit Eastern Spain in autumn, because the sea absorbs more heat in summer, which in turn leads to greater evaporation and heavier rains.
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