Catalonia suffers the fourth consecutive day of floods due to torrential rains

BarcelonaThe rain gives no respite. Catalonia is experiencing its fourth consecutive day of downpours and floods across a large part of the country this Tuesday. Once again, Es-Alerts have sounded on the mobile phones of many Catalans from the Terres de l'Ebre to the Gironès. Once again, several roads have been rendered impassable due to accumulated water, and images of firefighters rescuing people trapped by water inside cars have been repeated. The forecast is for the storm to last until after midnight and for the downpours to continue this Wednesday, especially in the coastal, pre-coastal, Pyrenees, and western Pre-Pyrenees regions with varying intensity.

This Tuesday, the first ravages occurred in Xerta, in the Baix Ebre. The torrential downpours in the Terres de l'Ebre left more than 40 l/m² in half an hour. The Minister of Interior, Núria Parlon, explained that in Xerta, the Generalitat Firefighters rescued eighteen people trapped by the water. They also assisted two people in Vandellòs and two more in Cambrils.

The storm, which this time carried a strong electrical charge and left a good number of lightning bolts, has continued moving north. Immediately, the images of flooded streets that had been seen in the Ebro were also repeated in cities like Sitges or Castelldefels, with some roads almost turned into streams. In the case of Barcelona, the storm was intense again and forced the cancellation of up to 35 flights at El Prat airport, although it was shorter and left fewer mobility disruptions than those of previous days.

Finally, the ES-Alert warning has also been extended to Granollers. In the Vallès Oriental region, the passage of these new storms has kept the municipalities that were already punished by the downpours on Monday on alert. As a preventive measure, town councils have suspended cultural and sports activities and classes during the afternoon. In fact, this Tuesday in Granollers, repair work for the damage caused on Monday continues, as well as the search for a twelve-year-old minor.

The search for a minor continues

More than 500 people, including firefighters, police officers, and dozens of volunteers, have unsuccessfully tried to find Rami, the twelve-year-old boy who disappeared in Granollers early Sunday morning during a rainy episode. The main hypothesis is that the boy, who has autism, may have been frightened by the loud thunder that echoed that night. The minor had already disappeared on two previous occasions, and he had always been located within a few hours.

Search efforts are focused on a delimited area located in the southeast of the municipality, between the train tracks area and the Ciutat de Granollers hotel, where he was last seen, an area that includes urban but also agricultural and forest land. Dogs, helicopters, and drones are working on the search. Streams and reed beds are being checked, and as the hours have passed, this search radius has been expanded.

"New scenario" from Wednesday onwards

Minister Parlon has specified that the storm could last until after midnight and has asked people to avoid flood-prone areas. Looking towards Wednesday, Parlon explained, torrential downpours are not expected, but there will be rain. "We must not let our guard down, but it seems they will be less intense," noted the head of Prediction at Meteocat, Santi Segalà, who has forecast "a new scenario" starting Wednesday.

The new round of showers and storms this afternoon is occurring in an atmospheric situation different from that of the last few days. Until now, the Mediterranean has been the great driver of the rains, with humid easterly winds and water warmer than normal that fed the strong storms, with the formation of significant mesoscale convective systems that left extraordinary downpours between the weekend and Monday on the coast and pre-coastal areas. In contrast, this Tuesday the main impulse is coming from the Atlantic. A pocket of cold air located in the western peninsula has increased instability, with the formation of inland showers that have swept across the country and reached the coast.

The last episodes had a permanent contribution of humidity from the sea towards the land, which allowed the storms to strengthen on the Catalan coast and, in some cases, regenerate again and again over the same areas, with static and extraordinarily torrential downpours. Now the engine is primarily the Atlantic disturbance: the rains may be equally strong and leave localized downpours, but with a different dynamic, as they will move more quickly from southwest to northeast, and not from the sea towards the land.