There DANA Alice is causing flash floods, torrential rains and serious damage across the entire western side of Spain: a Valencia the day was recorded rainier of the last 10 years, with rainfall accumulations of more than that 140 mm in 12 hours (of which 110 mm fell in just one hour), while a Tarragona around 500 people were evacuated due to torrential rain and the risk of flooding Ebro river. Floods also recorded ad Alicante and in Balearic Islandswhere there were blackouts that forced flights to be cancelled. It is no coincidence that this phenomenon occurs almost a year after the violent flood which in October 2024 caused over 220 victims throughout the Valencian province: the DANAin fact, represents a meteorological dynamic typically autumnal.
DANA Alice, however, it will not have direct effects on Italy: however, the entry into Italy of further infiltrations of cold air will lead to conditions of instability in the southern regions and on islands such as Sardiniawhere rainfall accumulations of over 50 mm are expected.
Throughout south-eastern Spain there were school activities suspended due to bad weatherwhile the Fire Brigade carried out hundreds of interventions to save people trapped in their vehicles along highways, roads or cliffs. For the moment, however, no victims have been reported, although material damage remains consistent.
As can also be seen in the post below, after the heavy rainfall over the weekend AEMET (Agencia Estatal de Meteorología, the Spanish national meteorological center) downgraded the alert to a orange level for the areas of the western Mediterranean (Valencian Community and part of Catalonia) and for the Balearic Islands and at a yellow level for the more central regions of Spain (Aragón, Navarra, La Rioja).
DANA Alice in Spain: the situation and the damage
What caused these floods throughout the western side of Spain was the so-called DANA (acronym for Depresión Aislada en Niveles Alto, “Isolated depression in high levels”), a phenomenon similar to what in Italy is defined as “cold drop“. In practice, it is a low-pressure system with closed internal circulation, which separates from the general circulation of the atmosphere and begins to move independently from the latter.
In other words, this depression is formed when a jet stream which proceeds at high altitude from west to east (at speeds even exceeding 200 km/h) ripples and forms an increasingly “strangled” bend until it physically detaches itself from the jet stream, becoming independent and isolated.
In these cases, the danger is not represented by the formation of a DANA, but by its stationing: the DANA Alice, in fact, remained stranded above the waters of the Mediterranean western due to the presence in the north of thehigh pressure over the UK. In meteorology, this phenomenon is called “Rex Blocking”, a term used to indicate an atmospheric block in which high pressure is positioned to the north while a depression remains isolated to the south.
Once blocked, the DANA Alice low pressure system strengthened thanks to thethermal energy accumulated in the waters of the Mediterranean during the summer months, leading to the instability and torrential rains that hit the country.
Although it is a frequent atmospheric phenomenon in the western Mediterranean and typically autumnal, the rapid warming of the Mediterranean Sea is causing increasingly violent cold dropsto the point of leading AEMET to give a specific name to the most intense cold drops, as happens with hurricanes.
To deal with the emergency, the Spanish Civil Protection sent a ES-Alert to all telephone cells in the Tarragona and Balearic area, inviting citizens to avoid any travel: in addition to Catalonia and the city of Valencia, DANA has also strongly affected the entire province of Alicante and the region of Murcia. In the first case, up to 164 mm of rain were recorded, with peaks of 59 mm fell in less than an hour in the town of Elche and the subsequent cancellation of most flights departing from Alicante Airport. TO Murciahowever, the floods led to the intervention of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), a special unit of the Spanish army responsible for intervening in serious risk situations, including natural disasters.
The possible effects of the meteorological phenomenon on Italy
Actually, DANA Alice it will not have direct effects on Italy: However, according to meteorologists, the low pressure area that led to the flash floods will gain more energy thanks to the warm currents coming from the North African hinterland and the tail of this cold drop will bring a slight instability mainly on the larger islands, not comparable to the intensity of rainfall recorded in the Iberian Peninsula.
Over the next few days, in fact, the flow of colder currents coming from the east, which will join what will remain of the now former DANA and will give rise to a depressionary circulation in Italy. The most affected regions will be especially the southern ones such as Calabria and Sicily, while in Sardinia Accumulations of rain are expected above 50 mm.
