From now on, dangerous DANAs will have their own names.
The objective is to prevent the population from always associating this phenomenon with catastrophes such as the one in Valencia.
BarcelonaThe State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has announced that from now on, names will be assigned to DANAs that could generate a significant impact and trigger orange or red alerts, as is already the case with the most powerful storms. This decision, according to the agency, will help prevent the population from "uniquely" associating this meteorological phenomenon with major catastrophes such as the one that occurred last fall in the Valencian Community.
This is explained by Aemet in a statement issued this Monday. According to the agency, this decision will contribute to improving communication with the public and the media, will facilitate the preparation and response of public authorities to adverse weather events, will facilitate the subsequent preparation of studies on each specific situation, will avoid "confusion," and will reinforce the coherence of the official message.
Since 2017, Aemet has participated in the Eumetnet program for naming high-impact storms, the European meteorological network. For naming, a predetermined list agreed upon by all the states of southwestern Europe – Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Andorra – consisting of twenty names, alternating between male and female, will be used. The next high-impact storm or DANA will be namedAlice.
The name DANA comes from the acronym for isolated depression at high levels. These are systems with complex evolution and difficult prediction, capable of generating very intense and locally torrential rainfall, as well as storms with great impact.
As is the case with depressions, a DANA is not always synonymous with situations of great impact for the population. For this reason, designating with a proper name only those potentially capable of generating devastation will help the population understand whether we are facing a dangerous situation or not.
It should be noted that since the catastrophic DANA occurred on October 29 of last year, every time this meteorological phenomenon occurs, a social alarm is generated, whether the situation is dangerous or not.
