Warning to British tourists after Valencia is battered by flash flooding almost six months after 232 lost lives in freak storm
Spain has been battered by freakish storms that saw huge hailstones and floodwaters punish towns in Valencia less than six months on from catastrophic flooding which left more than 230 people dead.
British holidaymakers were warned against travelling after first-sized hail hammered the popular region in eastern Spain yesterday amid orange weather warnings by state weather service AEMET denoting 'significant danger'.
The hailstorm and resulting floods gave way to chaotic scenes as Valencians rushed for cover in a month where daytime temperatures typically hover around 20 degrees Celsius.
Scarcely believable footage showed how vehicles sustained damage from the hail as others became stuck amid ice floes several inches thick in Villar del Arzobispo, with residents powerless to free them.
Other shocking clips circulating on social media showed the deluge gushing through the typically sun-kissed streets of Guadassequies and l'Olleria.
The sudden storm heaped misery on the region's residents, many of whom lost their livelihoods in the historic 'cold drop' that occurred in October 2024, triggering massive flooding which killed 232 people.
The authorities' perceived inadequacies in emergency preparation, communication and response to last year's weather phenomenon - referred to by the Spanish acronym DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos) - left millions disillusioned.
Yesterday's flash floods also came just days after a historic power outage left almost all of Spain without electricity for hours.
Valencians last week had planned a massive demonstration to call for the resignation of regional president Carlos Mazon, but it was cancelled due to the power outage.
Roughly a third of Spain remains under yellow or orange weather warnings into the weekend with AEMET warning of 'very strong storms, with large hail and strong wind gusts in areas of the north and east of the Peninsula' set for Saturday.
The agency said the highly irregular conditions bore the hallmarks of a 'cyclonic supercell storm', a weather event which brings severe thunderstorms and hail.
It added that the storm was 'spreading anomalously, deviating significantly southeastward relative to the movement of the other storms in its vicinity, which are moving eastward.'
The perilous conditions in Spain are symptomatic of a wider trend in Europe, which faced its most widespread flooding last year since 2013.
Floodwaters killed at least 335 people in Europe in 2024 - many of them in Spain - and affected more than 410,000, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organisation said in a joint report on Europe's climate last month.
Western Europe was hit hardest, with 2024 ranking among the region's ten wettest years in records going back to 1950.
Storms and flooding are Europe's costliest weather extremes, last year causing damage exceeding €18 billion euros.
Globally, 2024 was also the world's warmest year since records began, as well as the warmest for Europe - the planet's fastest-warming continent.
The planet is now around 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer than in pre-industrial times, mainly due to human-caused climate change.
Southeastern Europe had its longest heat wave on record, totalling 13 days, while Scandinavia's glaciers shrank at the highest rates on record, and heat stress increased across the continent.
Much of Eastern Europe suffered a lack of rain and drought, while floods ravaged western Europe.
Nearly a third of Europe's overall river network exceeded a 'high' flood threshold, while 12% breached 'severe' flood levels in 2024.
Storm Boris in September dumped the heaviest rain ever recorded in Central Europe onto countries, including Austria, Czechia, Germany and Slovakia.
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