[The pulse of the earth] "The hot sea" is also crazy in Europe.Cause of 'Spanish water bomb'

[Anchor]
A storm has arrived ahead of winter in Spain, where record-breaking flooding killed more than 220 people last month (October).

Like heavy snow in Korea, warm temperatures and heated seas are the cause.

Even countries with mild Mediterranean weather are in a climate disaster, the YTN Data Lab analyzed.

[Reporter]
In Malaga, southern Spain, roads were flooded by typhoons in mid-November.

It is an area where it rarely rains, and there have been three torrential rains exceeding 30 to 40mm in an hour in just 15 days.

At the end of last month (October), the eastern Valencia, where more than 220 people were killed in floods, also has a typical Mediterranean climate where olives grow.

But up to 30mm of rain fell in an hour,
In Turys, where the rain was most concentrated
, 771mm and well over a year of precipitation (454mm) fell in one day.

The primary cause is a 'blocking low pressure' called DANA.

It is a phenomenon in which a low pressure separated from the upper troposphere and isolated from below mixes with the warm air of the Mediterranean Sea and stays in one place for a long time, pouring heavy rain.

In 1957, heavy flooding killed more than 80 people in the region, but this time it was even more deadly.

This is because the atmosphere and the sea got hotter.

[Claire Barnes / World Meteorological Characteristics (WWA) expert; for every degree the air physically rises, it can hold about 7% more moisture. Based on recorded rainfall, it is estimated that the intensity of the downpours was 12% stronger and the frequency of the downpours was twice as high, as the temperature rose by 1.3 degrees due to industrialization-induced climate change.

The 50km section from Jamsil in Seoul to Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province was submerged.
The water trapped on the riverbank during the day
poured down in just a few minutes, wiping out people in cars on their way home from work on weekdays evening, low-lying homes and offices.

There was a forecast.

However, the warning was late.

[Hannah Cloke / Professor of Hydrology at the University of Reading, England] People were already underwater up to their throats when they were alerted by their cell phones. That means there's a serious problem with the warning system.]

Global temperatures have reached half of the 2.6°C rise in the 21st century, following a bad scenario.

Aside from efforts to reduce carbon, Spanish floods show that preparing for the risks already at hand is not just a challenge for some areas near the equator.

I'm YTN's Jang Ayoung.


Data visualization: Data lab included

Design: Lee Ga-eun, Lee Na-eun, Baek Seung-min,

Video editing: Lee Young-hoon

Data Source List:

1. Spain's flood-affected region hourly precipitation data NASA GPM L3 IMERG V07 Global Precision Measurement (GPM) Release 07

2. Daily precipitation data for flood-affected areas in Spain (AEMET) press release

3. Copernicus Emergency Management Service in the Flood Damage Area of Valencia, Spain

4. Mediterranean Sea-level Temperature Distribution Climate Central, NOAA OISST
during Spanish flooding