The rain in Spain

Trudy and I spent last week in a villa on the costa del sol a few miles east of Malaga.  My first visit in fact.  It was pleasant enough, although there was precious little sol.  One night, the 29th Oct, we endured the heaviest downpour I have ever seen and we were kept awake by thunder and lightning for several hours.  In the morning there was a little damage to awnings etc and some shops were sweeping water from their floors. Little did we realise that what we had experienced was simply the fringe of an unprecedented storm that caused the disastrous flood 350 miles away in Valencia.

I see now that records were well and truly broken and one weather station recorded 49cm of rain in 8 hours. That is about one year's average total rainfall. This seems a quite staggering volume of water to fall from the sky.  It is easy to suppose that climate change is responsible but who could have predicted such an enormous effect?  If a municipal official had suggested building defences against such an eventuality, is it likely that the warning would have been heeded?

I am filled with sympathy for both the victims and for those who must respond.