The heavy rainfall storm that affected Catalonia on October 3rd and 4th could have been much more than an episode of strong storms. An analysis published on the official blog of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) points out that the powerful mesoscale convective system that developed off the Catalan coast showed signs compatible with an attempted formation of a tropical cyclone, a process that "had not been documented until now in the Mediterranean," as highlighted in the same work. In fact, the storm forecasts already indicated the possibility of the formation of a medicane —a Mediterranean mini-hurricane—, although it ultimately did not happen.

Catalonia is spending another night looking at the sky. The DANA DANA,which is sweeping through a good part of the Mediterranean and has left downpours and severe flooding this Monday at dawn in the Valencian Community, has also watered the Principality with storms that have been locally intense and that may last until early Tuesday morning. According to Civil Protection, the day has left significant records, such as 67 liters per square meter in Falset, but the situation experienced this Monday cannot be compared to that lived in Valencia and Alicante or two weeks ago in Catalonia, especially in the Vallès Oriental and Occidental and the Maresme. For the moment, the harshest episode of this cold drop has avoided Catalonia.

After many days of calm and weather that is too warm for the time of year, the weather will become complicated this weekend. The anticyclone will move to northern Europe and, at the same time, a storm will form in the Mediterranean. All this will open the doors to the arrival of a pocket of cold air at high altitude coming from central Europe towards the Iberian Peninsula, as well as humid and warm maritime winds towards the Catalan coast. This will clearly increase instability, with the return of rain and a sudden, full autumn atmosphere. The sea water remains warmer than it should be, which can cause the rainfall to be more intense, just as it has been in recent weeks.

The Mossos d'Esquadra are investigating the discovery of a corpse floating in the sea between Sitges and Castelldefels, near Port Ginesta, which all indications point to being the lifeless body of the minor who went missing in Granollers. Sources consulted by the ARA indicate that the corpse, which is in an advanced state of decomposition, was wearing clothing that would match that of Rami, the twelve-year-old boy with autism who was last seen almost two weeks ago in Granollers during the floods. The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, confirmed this Thursday morning that it is indeed the missing minor and has sent a message of condolence to the family and friends.

The situation was extreme. On Tuesday afternoon, in Xerta (Baix Ebre), the clouds dumped with force more than 100 liters in a short time, and the emergency phone started ringing. Several calls came from the same place: at the entrance to the municipality, there were up to eighteen people affected by the water current, which had eaten away the road, right next to a gas station. Most of them were inside their cars.

Although there are more satellites orbiting the planet continuously sending high-resolution images and atmospheric data, radars that detect precipitation in real time, meteorological stations, rain gauges, radiosondes, and supercomputers capable of performing calculations on a scale unthinkable just a decade ago, it is still difficult to know exactly if a strong storm will unleash, where and when it will do so, and how much rain it will leave.

The association of small and medium-sized Catalan enterprises Pimec estimates that the heavy rains of the last few days have generated an economic impact of between 65 and 208 million euros on companies in Vallès Oriental, Barcelonès, Baix Llobregat, Vallès Occidental, and Maresme, according to calculations by the Observatory of the SME of Catalonia. Despite the range, Pimec tends to value the material losses at 117.5 million euros.

The Mossos d'Esquadra have confirmed that they have found the body of a dead man trapped inside a car in the tunnel of the Ronda Nord in Les Franqueses del Vallès, on the border with Granollers. It is a 43-year-old man who had been reported missing. He was located by company workers who were carrying out tasks to drain water from some of the areas that are still flooded due to the torrential rains of the last few days.

Catalonia is experiencing a very rainy start to the month of October on the coast and pre-coastal areas, where water accumulations are in some cases extraordinary. In autumn it is normal for it to rain heavily, but the magnitude of the episodes that are taking place and their torrential nature are at a level rarely seen. These are the effects favored by the climate crisis and the warming of the sea. However, this Monday's downpours stood out because the forecasts did not indicate that it would rain so much.

"I wish we had the absolute certainty that it will rain a lot or a little, but we don't," begins the deputy director of Civil Protection, explaining after another complex week, with strong torrential downpours that have once again put the country on alert, the latest being in the Terres de l'Ebre. She describes how meteorologists use models based on statistical data that mean they always have to work with probabilities, even if they are high, regarding whether the rain will be a risk to the population or not. And all this added to a territory like Catalonia, with diverse orography, with mountains near the coast, valleys, plains, and mountain ranges, which makes it all even more difficult to predict.

In Santa Bàrbara, Victòria street is known by the popular name "el barranquet" (the little ravine). And popular names never lie. Because no matter how much the urban layout tries to hide it, it is the natural path of the Pelós ravine through the center of town. It crosses the municipality from west to east and, if 290 l/m² fall in 24 hours, as happened this Friday, the water does not remember that there are houses. "The level of the flash flood has risen more than half a meter and even though, preventively, we had installed protective wooden boards in front of the garage door, the force of the current broke them and flooded the ground floor," explained Amaya Pla this noon, from in front of her parents' house.

The Minister of Interior, Núria Parlon, defended this Thursday that the mobile alerts for the intense rains on Wednesday night were sent in light of predictions of "sudden" floods. "They do not arrive late, but rather when the population must protect itself," she argued. The minister said this in a joint appearance with the deputy director of Civil Protection of the Generalitat, Sergi Delgado, in which they reported on the management of some downpours that caused the death of a 48-year-old driver in Olivella, in the Garraf region, when he was trying to cross the Begues stream with his car, in addition to cuts on roads and trains, flight cancellations, and various floods.

A man has died after being swept away by a stream in Garraf amidst the heavy rainstorm in Catalonia. The Generalitat Fire Department located his lifeless body at midnight, about 500 meters from where they found his car, in an accessible area, and recovered the body. According to a witness, a vehicle had become stuck in the stream and a person tried to get out, ending up being swept away by the current.

Yesterday, early in the morning, in Torredembarra, the sound of working chainsaws could be heard. It was the day after the storm. The new episode of violent weather had caused about fifty trees to fall in different parts of the municipality, and they needed to be removed. Some were blocking the way, others had fallen on parked vehicles or could pose a danger to pedestrians. A large cypress tree fell on two cars on Monday afternoon. One was driving with four people inside, one of whom was hit on the head and had to be taken to the Municipal Primary Care Center (CAP) for treatment. Precisely, another tree had fallen and affected the pediatrics module of this facility, and by night it had already been intervened to remove it. Some shops were closed with staff trying to remove the water that had entered the premises as best they could.

Torrential rains in the Tarragonès and Baix Penedès have highlighted the vulnerability of the coast to extreme precipitation events and have reopened the debate on the territory's capacity to manage their consequences, mainly evacuating water. The mayors of Roda de Berà and El Vendrell, two of the municipalities most affected by the floods, have called this Sunday for structural actions and specifically point to the railway line and the N-340 as infrastructures that can hinder its exit to the sea at various points, and cause serious floods like those experienced this past weekend. The Government has made itself available to the city councils to repair the damaged infrastructures, although it rules out declaring the territories as a "catastrophic zone".

The second day of the rain event brought more torrential downpours. This time, the worst of it hit the Barcelonès region, where rainfall intensified throughout the afternoon and evening, falling persistently and heavily, often accompanied by thunderstorms and some hail. The most affected municipalities are those in the northern part of the region, especially Badalona, ​​where some neighborhoods, such as Llefià, recorded more than 120 liters per square meter. Some unofficial weather stations recorded even higher amounts. Sant Adrià de Besòs was also significantly impacted by the downpours.

Catalonia has experienced this Thursday another day of heavy rain which has caused road closures, disruptions to mobility, and flight cancellations. Civil Protection sent an alert to mobile phones Wednesday night in practically all coastal and pre-coastal areas, warning of torrential rain and urging caution while traveling. The rain began falling in the early hours of the morning and has been intensely soaking the entire Catalan coast and inland areas. The Catalan Fire Service responded to 377 calls by 1 p.m., mainly in the metropolitan area. By emergency region, most of the calls came from the North Metropolitan Region (213), which includes Vallès. The remaining calls came from the Girona Region (73), the South Metropolitan Region (41), Terres de l'Ebre (21), Lleida (17), the Central Region (8), and Tarragona (4). Most of the calls were for water accumulation in basements and garages, and for fallen trees. There were also reports of lightning strikes on trees in public areas and in some private gardens, and of people trapped in their vehicles by floodwaters, some with serious head injuries. The 112 emergency line received 924 calls. The Medical Emergency System (SEM) responded to a total of 22 incidents and dispatched ambulances to treat 26 people in person, none of whom sustained serious injuries. In the Gran Via tunnels in Sabadell, municipal police officers, with the assistance of firefighters, had to rescue several people from inside vehicles. Sabadell and Móra d'Ebre were among the hardest-hit areas. In Girona, later in the afternoon, several parking garages also flooded. Some schools have also been affected, such as Escola Bellaterra in Cerdanyola del Vallès. According to Anna Garcia, the school's principal, they received contradictory instructions, as classes were not suspended, but they were asked to be cautious and reduce their movement. "We had to put ourselves at risk to open the school," she asserted.

Three weeks after the torrential rains that devastated the Baix Ebre and Montsià regions, Lluís Baiges still vividly remembers his farm transformed into a mud pit, littered with plant debris, greenhouse plastic sheeting, and collapsed metal structures. "We need two weeks of continuous work and more than forty people to try to recover the quarry that the water didn't wash away," he explains. In the greenhouses of Cultidelta—the family business he co-manages with his brother, specializing in the cultivation of native Mediterranean plants and horticultural and vegetable production—the mud marks are still visible. "The water came in like a tide and flooded some 60,000 square meters of greenhouses to a height of 80 cm. A week later, there was still stagnant water and trays of seedlings floating," he adds. The current swept away a significant portion of the crops. Among the plants they've been able to salvage, very few are usable for sale. "Most have been damaged by the mud itself, and those that haven't rotted from the excess moisture," he laments. "We're still in the process of assessing the damage, which is difficult to quantify, but I think we can estimate losses of around half a million euros, if we take into account the additional costs of repairing the damage, the loss of product, and the temporary halt in sales," he says.

"We looked at each other and understood everything: the only solution left was for the entire family to leave their home permanently." This is how the mayor of Alcanar, Joan Roig, describes the moment he found Dídac Pla, his wife, and their two daughters up to their waists in mud the very night of the floods. Alice The storm had just descended with great violence on this town in Montsià and other nearby towns such as Godall, Santa Bárbara, la Ràpita, Ulldecona, and Tortosa. In some of these municipalities, rainfall exceeded 250 liters per square meter, and this was the final straw: after Pla and his family have been affected by four floods in the last seven years, they are one step away from becoming the first climate refugees in Catalonia.