Southern Spain is on high alert in terms of security and services, following a massive wave of torrential rain that hit the region on Saturday night and Sunday morning, resulting in the disappearance of three people and causing widespread flooding, particularly around the tourist city of Malaga.
Details of the incident and search operations
The Spanish Civil Guard announced in an official statement on Sunday that it had launched an intensive search operation to locate three people who went missing during the flash floods. Efforts are currently focused on finding two people who disappeared near Malaga, while the third is missing in an area near Granada. Authorities have urged local residents to exercise extreme caution and avoid travel unless absolutely necessary, given the continued unstable weather conditions.
Videos widely circulated on social media showed horrific scenes of streets turning into raging rivers in several villages, with water flooding cars and homes, while rescue and civil defense teams began pumping water and removing mud and flood debris from the early morning hours.
Spain facing climate change
This event is not isolated from the broader environmental context affecting the continent; Spain is among the European countries most impacted by climate change. Climate studies indicate that rising temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea directly contribute to an increase in the intensity of extreme weather events, as clouds become saturated with enormous quantities of water vapor, which then release their load suddenly and violently onto land.
In recent years, the Iberian Peninsula has experienced an extreme climate pattern combining record-breaking and prolonged summer heat waves with bouts of torrential rain in autumn and winter, which experts attribute to rising greenhouse gas emissions linked to human activity, placing unprecedented challenges on the infrastructure in these regions.
Echoes and repercussions of the October disaster
These floods reopen wounds that have not yet healed in the Spanish memory, as they bring to mind the devastating flood disaster that struck the country in October 2024, which left behind a human tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 230 people, most of whom were concentrated in the Valencia region.
That disaster was not merely a natural occurrence; it became a public issue that sparked widespread public outrage and sharp criticism of the crisis management, amidst political wrangling between the left-wing central government and right-wing local authorities over the distribution of powers and the speed of response. Investigations to determine responsibility for the incident are still ongoing, even after more than a year.
Weather developments
In a related context, the Spanish Meteorological Agency updated its warning bulletins, reducing the alert level from red (extreme danger) to orange in the Andalusia region, but it warned of the movement of the low-pressure center and the rain mass towards the coast of the Valencia and Murcia regions, which in turn witnessed heavy rainfall on Sunday, which calls for emergency services to remain on high alert.
