Last week’s deadly storm, named Leonardo, came as part of a sequence of atmospheric rivers that has hit Spain since the start of the year, leading to swollen rivers, landslides and evacuations.
In a statement, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that the government would be providing support to affected sectors.
A Washington Post investigation into the movement of moisture in the sky found most of Spain to be a hot spot where increasing moisture flows are frequently producing extreme rainfall – including the region hit by these recent floods.
Although it’s not in the plain, Grazalema is often considered the wettest part of Spain. Situated in a rural region defined by several mountain ranges, it averages about 75 inches of rain per year, or about three to four times what non-mountainous nearby regions see.
This round appears to have shattered long-standing multi-week and multi-month rainfalls in the area. An annual record from 1941 – which this flood is being compared to – is closer to 150 inches.
In addition to the 6.5 feet in 20 days, as much as 10 to 20 inches fell in one day on Feb. 3, as extreme as any historical single day in Spain.
This year, the same polar vortex disruption that caused a frigid, snowy winter parts of the United States is also contributing to extreme weather in Europe. The pattern, which involves an unusually large and powerful area of high pressure over Greenland and the Arctic, is displacing stormy conditions farther south than usual.
Sitting near the southern edge of this zone of unsettled conditions, Spain has been buffeted by winds from the west.
Those winds have carried copious amounts of moisture across the Atlantic – from the Caribbean to the Iberian Peninsula – where rainfall ramps up as the waterlogged air is forced up the mountains, which wring the moisture out.
During January, above-average atmospheric moisture levels covered about 65 percent of the planet. While the causes of Spain’s recent weather extremes are multifaceted, these increasing vapor flows – linked to a warming world – are a key part of the ongoing situation.
Among others forced from their homes on the Iberian Peninsula, the roughly 2,000 residents of the village of Grazalema were evacuated late last week amid Storm Leonardo. Evacuations came during days of heavy rain and as aquifers in the area began to overflow.
Even before Leonardo, the area’s limestone soils were fully saturated because of the relentless series of atmospheric rivers. The unique ground composition allows water to gather and spill out wherever there is the least resistance, acting more like a freshwater spring than the more typical flooding that overflows into streams and rivers.
“This situation is completely abnormal. Grazalema is experiencing record rainfall and the ground is literally spewing water,” said Juanma Moreno, president of the regional government.
An additional storm – named Marta – swept through southern Portugal and Spain over the past few days, exacerbating flood concerns. New waves of storminess are also anticipated.
To the north of Grazalema, evacuations were ordered over the weekend along the Guadalquivir River. Portions of the provincial capital, Córdoba, were included in the significant flooding.
Numerous homes and large blocks of agricultural land were reported underwater.