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According to a report from Copernicus (the European Climate Agency), nearly 70% of the victims who died in EU countries due to flooding in 2024 did so during the devastating floods in Valencia.
In the Valencia flood disaster, which was caused by DANA in October last year, 232 people died.
Fatalities also occurred in the provinces of Albacete, Cuenca and Malaga, while infrastructure damage and economic losses were severe, totalling around €16.5 billion.
The storms continued for several more hours, and they broke the national records of total rainfall for one hour (184.6mm), six hours (620.6%) and twelve hours (720.4mm).
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The one-hour rainfall total of 184.6 mm more than triples AEMET’s threshold defining ‘torrential rain’, of 60 mm.
Turis Mas de Calabarra recorded 771.8mm of rainfall in 24 hours on October 29.
It is the second-highest 24-hour rainfall in Spain after 817.0 mm in Oliva, Valencia, during a similar incident in 1987.
2024 saw the most widespread flooding since 2013, with river flows in 30% of the European river network exceeding the ‘high’ flood threshold and 12% exceeding the ‘severe’ flood threshold.
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The total damage caused by flooding in Europe is estimated to have cost at least €18 billion.
Many parts of Western Europe have experienced a wetter than average year, and some regions had their wettest ever record.
The average river flow for the entire year was higher than usual in much of Central and Northwestern Europe.
Several reports predict that extreme precipitation events and flooding at the surface level will become more common in future.
In the last few decades, precipitation averages in Europe’s northern, western, eastern and central regions have increased.
