Valencia, Spain Smashed By Extreme Deadly Flood

The latest victim of extreme, deadly, unprecedented floods that have been happening around the world with increasing frequency is Valencia, Spain. 

Extreme flash floods this week piled up these cars
in Valencia, Spain. 

 

At least 158 people have died in the flooding and that toll is rising fast as more bodies are discovered.

The toll had been increased from 95 that were in news reports this morning. 

Per the Washington Post: 

"As much as a foot of rain.... fell in mere hours late Tuesday, leading to catastrophic flooding in and around the city of Valencia. Totals throughout the day were reportedly as high as 20 inches. In the town of Chiba, about 20 miles from Valencia, the rainfall in eight hours equaled the normal total in a year, Spain's meteorological agency said."

 Judging from the videos, the flooding in Valencia, Spain this week looks like some of the very worst I've ever seen. Valencia is a region in eastern Spain that includes the city of Valencia. It's a magnet for tourists attracted to its beaches, citrus orchards and food. 

The extreme power of the water pushed hundreds of cars down streets and highways, piling them up as if they were giant junkyards. Searchers on Thursday were finding bodies in some of those cars. 

 The flash floods in Spain looked even more intense in some instances of what we saw in North Carolina with Hurricane Helene.  The flood erupted when an area of low pressure stuck near the Strait of Gibraltar fed off the warm water of the Mediterranean Sea to send persistent waves and lines of torrential thunderstorms into parts of Spain.

As of Wednesday, the low pressure system that caused the Spanish flood havoc was still there, although it was weakening. It could still set off renewed flooding, though, Spanish meteorologists warned. 

 It didn't help that the Mediterranean Sea is unusually warm for this time of year. Warmer water feeding into a storm produces heavier rainfall.

The sea water there reached a record high temperature this year, exceeding records set last year. The water has cooled a bit from a summertime peak, but is still three to six degrees warmer than normal. That can make a big difference with rainfall. 

As usual with this type of disaster, scientists are pointing fingers at human-caused climate change. A large reason why the Mediterranean Sea is so warm is because of climate change.

There's been a rash of extreme flooding worldwide this year, and in recent years for that matter. Just this year, we've had the extreme flooding in North Carolina with Helene. Another enormous flood from a stalled storm in September caused catastrophic flooding in eastern Europe. Also in September, another unprecedented flood hit areas in and around Nigeria.

As many readers well know, we in Vermont have not escaped these big floods. A flash flood damaged areas in Washington County on June 23, only to be followed by much larger, catastrophic flooding on July 10-11.

Then, on July 30, extreme downpours of eight inches in a few hours - something pretty much previously unheard of in Vermont, struck the Northeast Kingdom. 

Videos of the flooding around Valencia are insane. I've found a few.

First one is a news summary showing scenes from the flooding. As always in this blog thingy, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that. 

More news footage, this time from the Associated Press. Again, click on this link or if you see the image below, click on that.