Catalonia registers three flood alerts in September, only four last fall

Catalonia has registered three flood alerts in the first three weeks of September.

The Meteorological Service of Catalonia (MeteoCat) is expecting a more violent meteorological season from September to December this year, as last year, the alert was activated only a total of four times.

During the first 21 days of September, there have already been three such alerts, two pre-alerts, and six warnings for surpassing the limit of precipitations sent by MeteoCat.

MeteoCat explained that the trend of Mediterranean meteorology is moving gradually toward a more tropical climate, as seen in the recent Greece floods in the last weeks.

The director of MeteoCat also emphasized that the possible cases of extreme rainfall will not help the ongoing drought situation as they do not fill the reservoirs.

The risk of flooding causes dangers for human life and monetary loss in damages, and autumn is the season with the most severe damages caused by flooding.

One of the examples is the 2019 flooding of the Francolí river in the south of Catalonia. Due to heavy rain on October 22 , the river flooded and grew from 50 to 1,238 cubic meters per second in just 15 minutes. The phenomenon caused a huge wave, similar to a tsunami, which left a huge disaster.

Emergency plans

Inuncat, the emergency flood plan of the Catalan government, allows for a coordinated response to flooding together with local councils.

Due to the increasing risk of floods, the director of Civil Protection, Marta Cassany, pointed out that it is important to remember basic protection measures in emergency situations.

However, she mentioned that autumn floods are difficult to manage and greater damages can not always be prevented.

High risk of flooding

According to the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) and the Hydrographic Confederation of the Ebre (CHE), 4% of the Catalan territory has areas susceptible to flooding, and around 705,000 people live in such areas, representing 9.1% of the total population, while 110,000 live in areas with very high risk of flooding (1.4%).

The towns with the highest chances of flooding are in the northern part of the Catalan coast, in the Pyrenees, and in Baix Ebre and Montsià, in the south of Catalonia.

In some cases, up to 50% of the inhabitants of such municipalities are in danger.