Why might rain be behind the train accident in Gelida?

BarcelonaThe rain has been relentless for the last five consecutive days in every corner of Catalonia. This prolonged period of precipitation has finally ended with a powerful storm surge. Harry between Monday and especially Tuesday. The weather effects have also affected Gelida, where there was rain on Tuesday night.an accident on an R4 train in which a 28-year-old trainee train driver has died.

Initial hypotheses suggest that a retaining wall collapsed onto the tracks, and the train traveling towards Manresa crashed halfway between Sant Sadurní d'Anoia and Gelida. In this municipality of the Alt Penedès region, it is estimated that nearly 90 liters per square meter have accumulated over the last five days; a figure that coincides with that recorded at the official Meteocat weather station located in Sant Sadurní.

This is by no means an exceptional amount of rain, although it is surprising given that it occurred in January, a month that is usually quite dry in our country. Nor has it been torrential; rather, the rain has generally fallen without causing damage to this area. However, it's adding insult to injury, and five consecutive days of rain have further saturated ground that is already becoming very waterlogged after several consecutive episodes of rain in recent weeks. This context is conducive to landslides or mudslides, as is believed to have occurred in the train accident in Gelida, which happened on one of the storm's peak days.