Three people have died and three others were still missing on Tuesday, September 5, following torrential rainfall in Spain on Sunday night. Violent downpours, thunderstorms, tornadoes and hail lashed the Iberian peninsula, together with the Calima, a violent easterly wind carrying Saharan dust. In a matter of hours, torrents of mud had formed in several central Spanish provinces, sweeping away cars, flooding homes and destroying roads and bridges, while four-meter high waves were recorded near Valencia.

After weeks of stifling heat, caused by more intense and frequent heat waves than usual, and against a backdrop of persistent severe drought, this DANA (Spanish acronym for "isolated high-level depression") has in turn been described as "exceptional" by climate experts, who point to the possible effects of climate change.

While DANAs are not uncommon in autumn, this one has happened particularly early. They form when cold drops at altitude come into contact with warm air masses on the surface. "This DANA is more typical of the months of October and November," explained Samuel Biener, an expert at the Meteored Institute. On Monday, it hit the Iberian Peninsula, while the Mediterranean was still posting particularly high temperatures, close to 27°C. According to meteorologist Juan Jesus Gonzalez Aleman, of the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet), interviewed by the daily El Pais on Tuesday, this could explain its violence, pending in-depth analysis.

Even more surprisingly, this low-pressure system has hit the central regions of the Iberian Peninsula hard, in particular the western part of the Madrid region and the province of Toledo in Castilla-La Mancha, where almost 120 liters of rain per square meter fell in just a few hours, in addition to the Valencia region, southern Catalonia and the province of Cadiz in Andalusia. DANAs usually occur near the coast, where the air is warmed by the sea.

Small towns in the province of Toledo, 70 kilometers south of Madrid, experienced the most serious damage. A 22-year-old man died when the elevator which he was inside flooded. Another was swept away on the freeway while driving. A man in his fifties was found drowned in a river.

A 10-year-old boy was found perched in a tree in Aldea del Fresno, 60 kilometers west of Madrid, where he had waited for eight hours for help to arrive after the car in which he was traveling was swept away by the current. His mother and sister had been rescued earlier, but his father was still missing on Tuesday. Three bridges in the town were destroyed.

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