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A unknown weather condition phenomenon known as a DANA has caused ruinous flash flooding in Valencia , Spain , this calendar week . More than155 mass have diedand dozens remain lack in what meteorologists are calling one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory .
On Tuesday ( Oct. 29 ) , some areas received the equivalent weight of a year ’s worth of rain in just a few minute , activate massive floods that scourge entire townspeople and bequeath yard of people stranded . In some areas , rain make up to 20 inches of rainfall ( 500 liters per straight meter ) .
Heavy rains flooded towns across the region of Valencia, Spain.
The crusade of this disastrous conditions is a phenomenon that imprint in the Mediterranean called a Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos ( DANA),a Spanish phrase that translate to isolated depression at high storey . It was the most severe DANA record in the twenty-first century , like to the catastrophic"Pantanada de Tous " in 1982 , according to Spain ’s State Meteorological Agency ( Aemet ) .
What is a DANA?
DANAs are intensified versions of what ’s known as a " stale drop , " which hap when a plenty of warm air collides with a stagnant mass of cold air at an EL of around 29,500 feet ( 9,000 meter ) .
In the upper atmosphere , there is a very strong nothingness current that surrounds Earth like a whang . Sometimes , this current begins to oscillate , seem more like a snake than a belt . When this fall out , the oscillation can get " stuck , " enabling the pile of moth-eaten air to remain in one place . On this occasion , it happened over southeast Spain .
A Danu pass off when this dusty air meets very ardent airwave near the surface , specially above the warm waters of the Mediterranean . This combination make a significant temperature difference between the different layer of the ambiance , which in turn get the warm atmosphere to rise well and become pure with water vapor .
The storm dropped a year’s worth of rain in hours, causing serious property damage and killing over 155 people.
If this temperature direct contrast is immix with humidity and energy from the Mediterranean , which is very fond after the summer months , the outcome is heavy storms and torrential rainwater .
" The winds may not be as trigger-happy as those of a hurricane , but in terms of rainfall and loudness , they can even outstrip them . These events can have material terms and loss of living as significant as those of an averagehurricane,“Jorge Olcina , film director of the Climatology Laboratory at the University of Alicante , told Live Science .
Iago Pérez , a geoscientist at the University of Oxford , described DANAs as one of the most dangerous meteorological phenomena in Spain , observe that " they release enormous quantities of pee in a very short time . "
DANAs form only over Spain , but alike weather patterns , called extratropical cyclones , form in the Atlantic off Uruguay and Argentina , the investigator allege .
On Oct. 29 , the DANA hover over the same area for more than 12 60 minutes , make it the most intense Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of theweather event — which is expected to continue with less intensity until Sunday(Nov . 3 ) .
DANAs use ardent water as " fuel , " meteorologistMar Gómeztold Live Science .
The DANA happen water temperatures around 72 degrees Fahrenheit ( 22 degree Celsius ) off the seashore of Valencia , while the common temperature for this meter of yr is around 70 F ( 21 C ) . That difference may seem modest , but it is enough to supply the tempest system with extra vigour . This can " trigger a cascade of rainfall in a very brusque period , " Olcina said . “These rains can be qualify as monsoonal . "
What does climate change have to do with it?
Gómez and Olcina agree that the asperity of this hebdomad ’s Danu is directly related to climate change . Pérez , however , thinks pinning the phenomenon on global warming requires deep analysis .
TheMediterranean Seais one of the marine basins that has warm the most in late decade . It acts as a " contagion belt for humidity and energy , " Olcina said . Since the 1980s , the average temperature of the Mediterranean has increase by 2.7 F ( 1.5 atomic number 6 ) — almost double the rise in air temperature in the region over the same period . " Since 2020 , summers on the Iberian Peninsula have see record book temperatures , and this class , sea Earth’s surface temperatures have exceeded 84.2 F [ 29 snow ] " Olcina said .
This warming has modify the timing of Danu , asthe Mediterranean now begins to heat upin May and retain that warmth through November . In comparing , during the eighties and 1990s , this phenomenon generally occurred in September and October . presently , an gauge 15 % to 20 % more DANAs kind each year compared with six decades ago .
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For researchers , this episode bid significant lessons , begin with the need to improve early warning communication protocols .
" When there are fatalities , it means that something has gone wrong . communicating and anticipation of these events must be enhanced , " Gómez tell .
Climate change will probably fuel more frequent vivid and exceptional hurriedness consequence . This emphasise the pressing penury to adapt bar and protection systems and to restructure vulnerable areas to boil down risks associated with an more and more uttermost climate , Olcina said .
