City sees over 7 times its monthly rainfall average in just 24 hours
It was the second-highest rainfall amount ever documented in May for Valencia. In 24 hours, the city was overwhelmed with more than 200 mm of rain -- far surpassing the monthly average of 35 mm.
When you talk about rainfall amounts reaching triple digits, it wouldn't be uncommon for a city to see that over the course of the month, depending on when and where, but in one day it seems hard to fathom.
But that's exactly what happened in Valencia in Spain this week. A rather moisture-amplified storm dumped more than 200 mm on the city Tuesday -- its second-highest 24-hour rainfall total for the entire month of May. Some reports documented 201.1 mm in parts of the city while others suggested that as much as 260.9 mm was recorded at the weather station at Camins al Grau.
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Despite the extraordinary amount, it wasn't enough to usurp the record, believe it or not. It was the city's second-highest rainfall amount on record, not just in May, since its records began in 1871. The current record is a slightly higher total that was documented on Nov. 17, 1956 (262.2 mm). Just to put into perspective, the average rainfall for May is 35 mm.
The storm had trekked eastward over the southeastern coastal city, spreading across the southern half of Spain. Needless to say, the rainfall submerged the city streets, vehicles and even homes underwater, with many images and videos of the aftermath showing up on social media. Several roadways and tunnels were shut down in response to the rain.
Since Tuesday, local police have received nearly 100 emergency calls as a result of the deluge, according to The Local. Firefighters with the Provincial Consortium of Valencia (CPBV) had to rescue three people trapped in a vehicle caught in the floodwaters in Paterna.
HOW WAS THIS POSSIBLE?
Naturally, one may wonder why so much rain fell in a 24-hour period? There was an interesting setup that led to such a historic deluge.
On Tuesday, convection off the coast of Castellón and Valencia formed what is known as a mesoscale convective system (MCS) -- a complex of thunderstorms that become organized on a larger scale than individual cells and have the ability to persist for several hours or more.
These systems are characterized by many elements including drenching rainfall with associated torrential intensity in many cases.
In this particular situation, the system was almost stationary and made the situation worse since the propagation and displacement occurred in the opposite direction. In other words, as the new storms formed in one direction (southeast) and moved in the opposite direction (northwest), the system remained practically motionless -- leading to continuous heavy rains over the city of Valencia.
In other areas of the city, such as Micalet, 208.4 mm of rain was recorded, while nearby communities Almassera received 186.4 mm and Manises documented 178.2 mm.
The deluge is piling on to what has already been a record spring for rainfall in Valencia. Only a week-old, it has already been Valencia's rainiest May. The previous monthly record was established in 1871, when 166.7 mm was recorded.
To top it off, the city has seen 488.6 mm of rain since March 3 -- more precipitation in two months than the normal climatological total for the entire year (474.9 mm).
With files from El Tiempo.
Thumbnail courtesy of Reuters.
