Unprecedented Rainfall and Major Flooding Around the World

[thorbiorn]

Human cosmic connections and arguments about who is to blame.

A comment to some Israelis mocking the floods in Spain. Apparently they think that the floods are because Spain does not support Israel enough.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1852428364658684211

She is saying Spain will continue supporting Palestine, no matter what some Ziopaths say about Spain.

Also: X.Link

The X.link to Suppressed News has in the comments:


The link to the Tweet with the video from Concerned Citizen.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1852950108733870463

The Rabbi argues that every time something bad happens to America it is because America was not a good enough friend to Israel. The recent rains, 911, and many more.

A link to a video about floods in Northern Israel:

The sky is attacking northern Israel! Heavy rains flooded cities in Galilee!

 

[Joe]

Valverde province, Dominican Republic

https://twitter.com/x/status/1853782613661454688

 

[Joe]

Sukabumi City in Indonesia today

https://twitter.com/x/status/1853805952903819684

 

[thorbiorn]

This post is a comment on the meteorological aspect of the heavy rains last week in Spain. It begins with a quote from an earlier post, followed by comments to a video in Spanish and excerpts from various Wikis. Then I tried to find some data that could illustrate what happened. At the end, I make a few comments about what people think of the event and add my current perspective.

Yesterday at 11:53 PM I posted from an article:

What is DANA weather in Spain
Updated June 2024

DANA is a Spanish acronym for Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos. It translates to"Isolated Depression at High Altitudes". A DANA is a type of weather phenomenon in which a "pocket" of cold air in the upper atmosphere separates from the main stream and sweeps over a warmer air mass. This process can result in severe weather, including heavy rains, and flooding. In recent years there has been an increase in heavy and torrential rains on the Mediterranean side of the Iberian peninsula. During a DANA alert, stay indoors is possible and if you are driving, be aware of flooding and strong water currents, especially in hilly and mountainous areas where mudslides area risk.

"La gota fría" is another Spanish expression often heard in connection with the DANA weather system. "La gota fría" literally means "the cold drop". This term refers to the same phenomenon as a DANA when a "pocket" or "drop" of cold air forms in the upper atmosphere and separates from the main stream. "La gota fría" is a well-known expression in Spain, especially in the coastal regions where this phenomenon is common and can cause severe storms.

However, I did not think I understood it well enough, so I looked for more explanations: I found a video in Spanish from BBC:
Qué es una DANA, el fenómeno meteorológico que provocó el peor desastre natural del siglo en España whch translated is "What is a DANA, the meteorological phenomenon that caused the worst natural disaster of the century in Spain"
The person is saying, from what I understand, that Jet Stream air circulating at an altitude of 11,000 meters, introduced cold air coming from Greenland over Spain which collided with humid warm air over the Mediterranean. (Warmer air can hold much more water vapor than colder air. When warm humid air is then suddenly cooled down, the water vapor condenses.)

The video has this text below:

Climate change
United Nations • Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

Comment: Some in the global media landscape use every possible opportunity to push for the anthropogenic climate change narrative and the presented or implied solution of the green agenda. Burn less coal, oil, and gas and heaven will be restored.

Then I went to the Wikis. This can be both good and bad, but it still helped to make the concepts clearer after looking up a few entries:
The English Wiki for "Cold drop" has:

A cold drop is a term used in Spain and France that has commonly come to refer to any high impact rainfall events occurring in the autumn along the Spanish Mediterranean coast or across France. In Europe, cold drops belong to the characteristics of the Mediterranean climate.

The Spanish-language name of gota fría was directly adapted from the term Kaltlufttropfen introduced by German meteorologists, and became very popular in 1980s Spain as a blanket term to refer to any high-impact rainfall event.

In the Spanish Levante, these events are typically caused by the interaction of upper-level low pressure systems strangled and ultimately detached from the zonal (eastward) circulation displaying stationary or retrograde (westward) circulation with humid and warmer air masses provided by an overheated Mediterranean in the Autumn. The Spanish equivalent of cut-off low is DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos). Such recurring synoptic configurations are not necessarily associated to cold drop events.

[...]
Spain
If a sudden cut off in the jet stream takes place (particularly on the Atlantic Ocean), a pocket of cold air detaches from the main jet stream, penetrating to the south over the Pyrenees into the warm air in Spain, causing its most dramatic effects in the Southeast of Spain, particularly along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, especially in the Valencian Community. The torrential rain caused by a cold drop can result in devastation caused by torrents and flash floods.

This phenomenon is associated with extremely violent downpours and storms, but not always accompanied by significant rainfall. For this, high atmospheric instability in the lower air layers needs to combine with a significant amount of moisture.

Disasters
The great Valencia flood on 14 October 1957 was the result of a three-day-long cold drop and caused the deaths of at least 81 people.

The Vallès floods on 25 September 1962 in the province of Barcelona were caused by a cold drop (gota fría), heavy rain, overflowing the Llobregat and Besòs rivers. The official death toll was 617.

On the night of 29-30 October 2024, a DANA caused considerable loss of life and extensive damage, especially in the Valencian Community and the provinces of Albacete, Almería, and Málaga.

Other areas
Cut-off lows are apparent near the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the Colombian Caribbean, with peaks surpassing 5 km in altitude in close proximity to a warm sea. They can also occur elsewhere in the southern hemisphere, such as in South Africa, Namibia, South America and southern Australia. In the northern hemisphere, besides Southern Europe and France, they can occur in China and Siberia, North Pacific, Northeastern United States and the northeast Atlantic.

The German Wiki "Kaltlufttropfen" explains if translated:
Meteorologists refer to a high-altitude low in the upper troposphere as a cold air drop. It is created through a cut-off process.

Construction[edit] Edit source]
It consists of very cold air of polar origin, typically has a horizontal extension of 300 to 1000 km and is located at an altitude of 5,000 to 10,000 meters above sea level. A drop of cold air is not recognizable as a low-pressure area on the ground; at most, it is noticeable by a small cyclonic bulge of the isobars. A drop of cold air also has no fronts. However, during its passage about the same weather phenomena can be observed as with a low, only in reverse order:

Front: Especially in winter cloud formations with showers like in a cold front, otherwise due to sinking processes cloudiness decrease or clearing clouds.
Back: Area of closed sliding clouds with sometimes longer-lasting precipitation as in a warm front – not as pronounced in summer.
Center: Low altitude temperatures cause high instability, therefore often high-reaching cumulus clouds with showers and thunderstorms, especially in summer. The weather situation that led to the so-called Heinrichsflut in northern Hesse, eastern Westphalia and southern Lower Saxony in July 1965 is considered an example of such a severe thunderstorm situation.
A barometer on the ground can indicate high pressure despite the presence of a drop of cold air and thus suggest 'fine weather'. However, it is usually very cloudy and the long-lived eddies that form at altitude can cause violent thunderstorms and snowfall in winter.

Gota Fría[edit] Edit source]
In Spain, cold drop repeatedly cause intense precipitation and storms, especially in autumn. If the surface temperature of the Mediterranean Sea is still relatively high and there is a high-altitude low south of Spain, a lot of rising moisture can be transported over the Spanish mainland by the counterclockwise rotating air masses. When several factors interact (air pressure at lower altitudes, jet streams, orography, etc.), storms occur, which are called Gota Fría (literally: 'cold drop') after the Spanish translation for cold air drop. Since the 1980s, Gota Fría has been increasingly used as a name for any type of heavy rainfall, Spanish meteorologists have started to refer to cold drop as depresión aislada en niveles altos (DANA, German: 'isolated high-altitude low'). [1]

The DANA phenomenon is mainly associated with the Spanish mainland and the Mediterranean Sea, but it is not limited to these regions. It can actually occur in the Atlantic Ocean as well, including the Canary Islands. These have a year-round mild climate with relatively warm sea temperatures, which contributes to the formation of rising moist air masses. If an isolated high-altitude low forms and passes over these warm and humid air masses, this can lead to strong storms and intense precipitation, similar to the Spanish mainland. [2]

A Gota Fría, for example, led to the Great Flood of Valencia in 1957 and the flood disaster in Spain in 2024 with more than 200 deaths.

The English Wiki has a note that suggests merging the "Cold drop" Wiki with the "Cut-off low" which explains:

A cut-off low (or cutoff low), sometimes referred to as the weatherman's woe, is defined by the National Weather Service as "a closed upper-level low which has become completely displaced (cut off) from basic westerly current, and moves independently of that current." Cut-off lows form in mid-latitudes (usually in the subtropics or between 20° and 45°) and can remain nearly stationary for days.

Formation
A cut-off low is a cold-core low where wind in the upper levels of the troposphere is "cut off" from the primary westerly winds of the jet stream. They are formed when a trough in the upper-air flow pinches off and separates into a closed circulation. It is defined by concentric isotherms around the core of the low. Because they are a feature of the mid- to upper-troposphere, they may not be visible on a surface weather analysis. Because they are separated from the main westerly flow, cut-off lows can move slowly and erratically. In certain arrangements, known as a block or a blocking pattern, they can remain in place for long periods of time.

Whilst cut-off lows can form at any time of the year, they are more common in autumn, winter and spring in much of the areas affected, particularly in Australia and the Mediterranean Basin, when a mass of polar air is brought towards more southern regions (or northern, in the southern hemisphere) by the jet stream moving between 5 and 9 km altitude.

[...]

Characteristics
A cut-off low situated over Italy and the tip of northern Libya.
The diameter of a cut-off low can vary from a few hundred to a thousand kilometers. The air there is homogeneous and without a front line separating it from the surrounding masses, while having a decisive influence on the weather. It then most often leads to an atmospheric blocking circulation and the formation of an upper level low. High cold drops, between 1,000 and 10,000 m, are regions of low stability, while low cold drops are regions of relatively stable air. Composed of very cold air of polar origin, it typically has a horizontal extent of 300 to 1000 km and is 5,000 to 10,000 meters above sea level.

Movement
A cut-off low has a slow movement, typically over a confined region, where it produces heavy rainfall. They are volatile, baroclinic systems that meander to the west with strong convergence and an ascending motion, especially when they are deepening. A cut-off low can persist from a few days to more than a week. It may be absorbed into the general circulation while another forms in the same place a few days later. The evolution and movement of a cold low, like any weather blockage, is therefore uncertain.

Effects
Effects of a cut-off low of September 1997 in Alicante.
Cut off lows typically create unsettled weather and, in the warm season, they may produce a lot of thunderstorms. A cut-off low has a slow movement, typically over a confined region, where it produces heavy rainfall, and can result in severe flooding. For example, a cut-off low was responsible for the July 2021 floods in Europe.

Regional impacts
In southeastern Australia, cut-off lows can be associated with Australian east coast lows, which are subtropical cyclones or extratropical cyclones that originate from the east. In eastern Australia, a cut-off low can bring accumulating and widespread snowfall at low-level areas and as well as elevated regions in the subtropics.

In Spain, cut-off lows are often referred to as DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos, 'Isolated Upper-Level Depression'), which stresses the characteristic of upper-level lows, differentiating them from other lows, such as thermal lows originating in lower atmosphere levels during the Summer months.

Ventusky has a function that allows for searching the history, and I tried October 29. Here is a screenshot:

The air is coming from the ocean and it is probably humid. The dark colors indicate the amount of precipitation for the three-hour period. The temperature was 21 degrees. The humidity out at sea away from the area of rain was 90 %.

Then changing the parameters, here is a view of the airflow at an altitude of 5500 meters as well as an indication of the temperatures:

Near Valencia, the temperature at 5500 meters was -15 Celsius, while it near the low just south of Spain was minus 22 Celsius. Notice that the high-pressure system over the Atlantic brings cold air from the north to the south.
The Low then spins some of it around presumably causing the clash between cold and warm humid air from the Mediterranean.

Why are the temperatures in the low-pressure system so low compared to the surrounding air masses? I tried to scroll back in the records and found this picture for October 24. This was five days before the downpour. Notice that there is a tongue of cold air from the north, located southwest of Ireland. It has arrived there from higher latitudes and has been spun around by the high-pressure system over the Atlantic.

For October 25 the indications are that something is changing, the cold air from the north has separated and has begun to spin around itself in an independent low-pressure system.

On October 26, the situation is developing, the low is moving south.

October 27, two days before deluge day, shows a clear separation of the low that keeps moving south with the cold air from the north still spinning around itself. In the center of the low, it is minus 26 Celsius.

The day before the deluge, the temperature in the coldest areas of the low at 5500 meters is still minus 25 C.

There is still much I don't understand about the situation. Is it for instance possible that when the warm air coming from the sea hits land and is pushed up, is cooled down faster if there is already colder than usual air at altitude? Here is a geophysical map of the Iberian Peninsula:

While there have been speculations that the rains were assisted, it is difficult to prove they were. There seem to be reasonable explanations for what happened. However, since the governments of many countries have taught their populations to trust them, come plague, hell-fire, or high water, when something does show up where they don't know what to do, or are just plain incompetent, some try to cover their positions, when they know it is so bad that they could be fired or lose the confidence of the populations. Is that why the authorities in Spain, as reported in Spanish media, have had difficulties with counting the dead and the missing?

Agendas do differ, also in governments. Some want to keep their job at all costs. Many, hopefully, sincerely want to help their constituencies and the people they serve, but some may also allow a situation to develop in a certain way and allow others to cover their backsides, because the chaos of the mix of inability, negligence, incompetence, and contradicting rules and regulations not geared to such events, suits what they would like to achieve anyway. As the BBC video, (or was it really Google?) lost no pace to point out:

Climate change
United Nations • Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

While many people in the Valencia area will have to struggle to get back on their feet, one message pressed on the global public seems to be that they need to go green, but also keep their minds shut, and their eyes closed to what is going on around them.

 

[XPan]

There is still much I don't understand about the situation. Is it for instance possible that when the warm air coming from the sea hits land and is pushed up, is cooled down faster if there is already colder than usual air at altitude? Here is a geophysical map of the Iberian Peninsula:

Aren't warm sea temperatures also a strong factor ?

The huge amount of moisture content [energy] in the sea (especially in autumn and early winter when the sea is warmer than the surrounding air plus the colder air at greater height. e.g the "cold drop" formation over an larger area acting like a "seed" that brings things to explode). The factors together create a situation in which the airmass is forced to rise excessively. And like the formation of rain droplets, that when warm air rises, it cools at greater heights - and therefore can't hold the same moisture content - so water forms. (Especially with a local topography such as high mountains, mountain chains, etc) acting as a "barrier", and it rains off in a forced, extreme manner.

So called "V" type of thunderstorms, the most severe type of weather phenomena, which feed moisture against a coast for many hours like "funnels", creating torrential rainfalls. = flooding. (Those V-thunderstorms where present over Spain e.g Valencia, but later also Mallorca got major problems etc).

From what I observed is, that when the rain event happened over Spain / Valencia, it was autumn's 2024 first "cold drop" low pressure event over Spain. And the first ones, are often severe (if the cold drop is effective enough); Cyclone(s) meet the residual, large amount of summer energies present... then "all hell can break loose".

-

I often see the "mountain-barrier" effect quite often on the east side of Etna in Sicily, where you register the highest amount of rainfalls in the region especially during autumn and/or early winter, as winds winds are pushed towards NW or directly towards the west, against Etna and the narrow coast strip with high mountains behind, between Taormina and Messina.

Not long time ago, east of Etna, got rainfalls up to 450 mm (but you almost never hear from those events in the general news !). All that water was forced downwards, towards the sea, creating flooding (e.g. in the city of Catania).

Other places prone to severe / excessive rainfalls - just as an example - is the city Genova / Genoa in Northern Italy with its surrounding mountains to the north; a narrow strip of coast, with high mountains right behind - creating a barrier effect. When "V" type of thunderstorms in the Gulf of Genoa feeding huge amounts of moisture against the coast - severe flooding becomes a fact. Also the coast of Croatia and its mountainous geography inland pose similar dangers in November/December.

In winter this effect also comes to the fore; like "The Great Lake effect" in the US/Canada or in Sweden we call it "Snow cannon effect", leading sometimes to excessive snowfall along a coast (when the Baltic Sea is still open, warmer than the inflow of ice cold air), while the wind direction play a major roll, staying the same over a couple days (feeding the snow showers against the coast), and you get a whopping 1+ meter snow events within 24 hours dumped over a Swedish town such as Gävle or Västervik, etc.

* * *

The problem i see now is, that almost all "weather" (events) are being shifted / dumped into one and the same cauldron of "climate". Which is a large error, of course. Weather ain't Climate. Yet, it is all being mixed up though false reporting, Green speak and guilt by association, that the public at large has bought into it by hook or by crook; All is one - the new "truth".

And so, today's "children" of Edward Louis Bernays' teachings laugh all the way to the bank.

Misson accomplished.

 

[thorbiorn]

The problem i see now is, that almost all "weather" (events) are being shifted / dumped into one and the same cauldron of "climate". Which is a large error, of course. Weather ain't Climate. Yet, it is all being mixed up though false reporting, Green speak and guilt by association, that the public at large has bought into it by hook or by crook; All is one - the new "truth".

And so, today's "children" of Edward Louis Bernays' teachings laugh all the way to the bank.

They can laugh because the reporting lacks details. One should think it would have been easy for resource-rich media giants to gather some maps, that track the development of the weather system, as I tried to do, and add a few extra details and perspectives as you did in your post, but that is, apparently, rarely done. We do however notice superficial reporting also of other issues like COVID, Ukraine, and Israel, to take just the most glaring examples. The messages that are pushed are that we should believe in man-made global warming, that masks and mRNA injections are good for you, that we should give our last penny to support Ukraine/NATO war efforts and support the goodness and benevolence of Israeli genocides. What this style of reporting does, I think, is that it helps to not prepare more people for what is coming.

 

[heinrich]

This post is a comment on the meteorological aspect of the heavy rains last week in Spain. It begins with a quote from an earlier post, followed by comments to a video in Spanish and excerpts from various Wikis. Then I tried to find some data that could illustrate what happened. At the end, I make a few comments about what people think of the event and add my current perspective.

Yesterday at 11:53 PM I posted from an article:

However, I did not think I understood it well enough, so I looked for more explanations: I found a video in Spanish from BBC:
Qué es una DANA, el fenómeno meteorológico que provocó el peor desastre natural del siglo en España whch translated is "What is a DANA, the meteorological phenomenon that caused the worst natural disaster of the century in Spain"
The person is saying, from what I understand, that Jet Stream air circulating at an altitude of 11,000 meters, introduced cold air coming from Greenland over Spain which collided with humid warm air over the Mediterranean. (Warmer air can hold much more water vapor than colder air. When warm humid air is then suddenly cooled down, the water vapor condenses.)

The video has this text below:

Comment: Some in the global media landscape use every possible opportunity to push for the anthropogenic climate change narrative and the presented or implied solution of the green agenda. Burn less coal, oil, and gas and heaven will be restored.

Then I went to the Wikis. This can be both good and bad, but it still helped to make the concepts clearer after looking up a few entries:
The English Wiki for "Cold drop" has:


The German Wiki "Kaltlufttropfen" explains if translated:
Meteorologists refer to a high-altitude low in the upper troposphere as a cold air drop. It is created through a cut-off process.


The English Wiki has a note that suggests merging the "Cold drop" Wiki with the "Cut-off low" which explains:

[...]


Ventusky has a function that allows for searching the history, and I tried October 29. Here is a screenshot:
View attachment 103161
The air is coming from the ocean and it is probably humid. The dark colors indicate the amount of precipitation for the three-hour period. The temperature was 21 degrees. The humidity out at sea away from the area of rain was 90 %.

Then changing the parameters, here is a view of the airflow at an altitude of 5500 meters as well as an indication of the temperatures:
View attachment 103172
Near Valencia, the temperature at 5500 meters was -15 Celsius, while it near the low just south of Spain was minus 22 Celsius. Notice that the high-pressure system over the Atlantic brings cold air from the north to the south.
The Low then spins some of it around presumably causing the clash between cold and warm humid air from the Mediterranean.

Why are the temperatures in the low-pressure system so low compared to the surrounding air masses? I tried to scroll back in the records and found this picture for October 24. This was five days before the downpour. Notice that there is a tongue of cold air from the north, located southwest of Ireland. It has arrived there from higher latitudes and has been spun around by the high-pressure system over the Atlantic.
View attachment 103166
For October 25 the indications are that something is changing, the cold air from the north has separated and has begun to spin around itself in an independent low-pressure system.
View attachment 103167
On October 26, the situation is developing, the low is moving south.
View attachment 103169
October 27, two days before deluge day, shows a clear separation of the low that keeps moving south with the cold air from the north still spinning around itself. In the center of the low, it is minus 26 Celsius.
View attachment 103170
The day before the deluge, the temperature in the coldest areas of the low at 5500 meters is still minus 25 C.
View attachment 103171
There is still much I don't understand about the situation. Is it for instance possible that when the warm air coming from the sea hits land and is pushed up, is cooled down faster if there is already colder than usual air at altitude? Here is a geophysical map of the Iberian Peninsula:
View attachment 103174
While there have been speculations that the rains were assisted, it is difficult to prove they were. There seem to be reasonable explanations for what happened. However, since the governments of many countries have taught their populations to trust them, come plague, hell-fire, or high water, when something does show up where they don't know what to do, or are just plain incompetent, some try to cover their positions, when they know it is so bad that they could be fired or lose the confidence of the populations. Is that why the authorities in Spain, as reported in Spanish media, have had difficulties with counting the dead and the missing?

Agendas do differ, also in governments. Some want to keep their job at all costs. Many, hopefully, sincerely want to help their constituencies and the people they serve, but some may also allow a situation to develop in a certain way and allow others to cover their backsides, because the chaos of the mix of inability, negligence, incompetence, and contradicting rules and regulations not geared to such events, suits what they would like to achieve anyway. As the BBC video, (or was it really Google?) lost no pace to point out:

While many people in the Valencia area will have to struggle to get back on their feet, one message pressed on the global public seems to be that they need to go green, but also keep their minds shut, and their eyes closed to what is going on around them.

t hank you for your extensive research. things are more complicated than the vicious statement by the un that it is all the fault of human induced climate change. such statements totally UNDERMINE the credibility of the nefarious un, which also dares to say "the science is ours". what a flabbergasting arrogance. no, science is developed by human researchers, this science belongs to the achiements of all of humanity, and to already declare some of it secret, classified, confidential, restricted is akin to theft. i recall a bouddhist saying: "all that is not GIVEN is lost". sts vs sto..

 

[Joe]

Cadaques, near the French Spanish border on the Med side. Officially according to predictions, about 4 cms of rain fell between 10pm and 4 am last night. 4cms is not a lot, but that was just the prediction, probably a lot more fell. Which again makes me think that standard meteorological predictions today are unable to accurate assess the amount of water in cloud systems. Notable is the fact that Cadaques sits at the bottom of the Pyrenees as they meet the sea.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1854804925588685116

https://twitter.com/x/status/1854789179047092309

https://twitter.com/x/status/1854796621533298728

 

[thorbiorn]

Regarding the floods in Spain, it has been proposed that the removal of dams was a cause for the damages caused by the flooding in Valencia. I tried to find out if that is the case and remain unconvinced, though I would agree that indiscriminate dam removal for the sake satisfying certain agendas.

Below are excerpts from an article which discusses the role of dam removals. To evaluate the claims, I added notes on the capacity of dams in Spain and especially the Valencia area.

Are dam removal projects championed by WWF the cause of the devastation from floods in Valencia?
By Rhoda Wilson on November 6, 2024 • ( 16 Comments )
Spain has been actively dismantling dams and weirs in recent years, with a significant focus on removing structures that no longer serve a purpose or are deemed unnecessary.

Spain has led the way in Europe with, for example, 108 dam removals in 2021, a record-breaking year for dam removals across the continent.

It is not only dams that are being removed, but all artificial barriers including flood defences. The problems this policy causes are obvious and we are perhaps seeing the consequences of such bad policies in the recent devastating floods in Spain.

Who is behind these policies and will they be held accountable for the devastation and loss of life in Valencia?

Here is a link to Dam Removal Europe where one finds:

Live from Spain! Join us to celebrate the removal of the Molino de Zúñiga Dam
October 21, 2024
[...]
Connect to the Dam Removal Europe YouTube channel on October 25 at 12:00 CEST
We are thrilled to announce another live event celebrating the ongoing removal of the Molino de Zúñiga Dam on the River Ega in Northern Spain. Join us as Camila Kuncar from CIREF shares insights into this restoration project, which aims to improve the headwaters’ conditions of the River Ega, located within a Nature Reserve and designated as a Special Area of Conservation under the Natura 2000 Network.

We invite you to join us for a special live broadcast on the Dam Removal Europe YouTube channel to learn more about this river restoration effort and its impact on local biodiversity.

Somewhere they say: 487 dams removed in 2023 View the map

The Exposé writes:

It’s important to note that it isn’t only dams that are on Dam Removal Europe’s target list. “The demolition hammer has gone into many obsolete or disused dams and weirs. Flood defences that caused damage to the surrounding ecosystem also had to suffer,” In Spain News said.

Citizens have expressed concerns about the demolition of dams, which provide drinking water, energy and flood protection, but “experts” argue that well-maintained infrastructure is crucial to prevent collapse and ensure public safety.

Well, perhaps the “experts” are wrong.

It is the removal of these dams and flood defences that have become the focal point as the root cause of recent devastating floods in Valencia and elsewhere in Spain. The following is just a sample of what social media users are saying.

Latimer Alder tweeted, “In both 2021 and 2022 Spain was Europe’s leader in removing dams from water courses (‘river restoration’). Nearly 250 [were] removed. And now we have a bad periodic flood in Valencia. The water could not be held back. Makes you think …”

Jose Muniz tweeted the image below and commented, “These are all the dams that the Spanish Government has eliminated in these past years in their plan to ‘let the rivers flow’ designed by the greens in Europe.”

[...]

In the fourth tweet of his thread, Jos Quinten posted a video and said, “From the EU website Dam Removal Europe we can read: ‘The Jucar Basin Authority (CHJ), in the east of Spain (Valencia and Albacete area), has demolished 10 dams over the past two years in the basin’. What could possibly go wrong … [Video] below [shows] devastation in Albacete area.”

You can read Jos Quinten’s thread on the Threadreader App HERE.

MkNotts19 responded to Jos Quinten’s thread, “Any policy originating in WEF corridors is very much ‘intentional’ and always disguised as being benefit of the environment” and attached a link to the World Economic Forum’s 2023 article ‘The removal of dams in Europe is reviving rivers and boosting biodiversity. Here’s how’.

Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki tweeted an article he had published titled ‘Drowning in Deception: Floods in Valencia, Spain: How Politicians and Media Exploit Natural Disasters for a Climate Agenda’.

To introduce his article, Dr Wielicki, who describes himself as an Earth scientist in exile, attached the image below with the comment, “Hundreds of years ago, communities built dams recognising the very real threat of floods to life and livelihood. These structures became a testament to human ingenuity and resilience.

“Fast forward to today, and in the name of environmentalism, we’re tearing down these barriers – 239 removed in Europe alone in 2021 – only to blame climate change when floods devastate towns. This is insanity. We’ve forgotten the lessons of the past, dismantling protections that safeguarded generations and then pointing fingers at climate when nature inevitably takes its course.”

See also this article: The Ageing of Infrastructure and Ideologies: Contestations Around Dam Removal in Spain

Although some dams had been removed in the Valencia area, a subject not answered in the Exposé article is how much difference they would have made, had they been in place. Questions I have also include: what was their holding capacity, how much more water could they have held, how well were they maintained, (were many silted up?), were some in danger of breaking (the effect of a dam break can in some instances be far worse than no dam at all!).

Other questions that could be investigated is how much the dams still in place helped to prevent damages. After all there are still dams in Spain, also near Valencia.

Agua en los embalses de España. has this overview that clearly shows more water is stored in Spanish dams now than in some of the previous years.


For the Valencia area, there is this page: Datos actualizados de los embalses en Comunidad Valenciana. which shows there is still a lot of capacity:

The diagram above shows an increase of water in the dams around Valencia in the last week of October, but surprisingly there is still capacity remaining, and also less water than at the same time in 2023.

Regarding the unit hm3 used in the table, it corresponds to 100 m3. If one hectare is 10,000 m2, one could collect 100 m3 of water if there was a rainfall of 0.01 m per m2, that is 10 mm of rain, assuming all is collected.

The remaining capacity in the Valencia area is at the moment around 1200 hm3, (1956-762 hm3) which corresponds to 10 mm of rain collected from an area of 1200 hectares. With 100 hectares for each km2, 1200 hectares is a mere 12 km2 or an area of 3 by 4 km. The area that received rain around Valencia was larger than 12 km2 and the amount of precipitation in late October was far, far in excess of 10 mm.

It is odd that the dams the Valencia area does have, were not filled by all the water they received. This could indicate that the catchment area for the rivers that flow into the dams is limited, or that water that fell also had alternative options for getting out of the way. However, even if the dams had been topped up with the extra 1200 hm2, would it really have made all that much of a difference as far as damages are concerned? That is a question engineers and city planners on the spot would better be able to answer.

 

[Joe]

South Carolina yesterday

https://twitter.com/x/status/1854568526788632776

 

[Joe]

Luque, Paraguay today.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1854335530609057881

 

[happyliza]

Regarding the floods in Spain, it has been proposed that the removal of dams was a cause for the damages caused by the flooding in Valencia. I tried to find out if that is the case and remain unconvinced, though I would agree that indiscriminate dam removal for the sake satisfying certain agendas.

Below are excerpts from an article which discusses the role of dam removals. To evaluate the claims, I added notes on the capacity of dams in Spain and especially the Valencia area.

Here is a link to Dam Removal Europe where one finds:

Somewhere they say: 487 dams removed in 2023 View the map
View attachment 103300
The Exposé writes:


[...]

See also this article: The Ageing of Infrastructure and Ideologies: Contestations Around Dam Removal in Spain

Although some dams had been removed in the Valencia area, a subject not answered in the Exposé article is how much difference they would have made, had they been in place. Questions I have also include: what was their holding capacity, how much more water could they have held, how well were they maintained, (were many silted up?), were some in danger of breaking (the effect of a dam break can in some instances be far worse than no dam at all!).

Other questions that could be investigated is how much the dams still in place helped to prevent damages. After all there are still dams in Spain, also near Valencia.

Agua en los embalses de España. has this overview that clearly shows more water is stored in Spanish dams now than in some of the previous years.
View attachment 103301

For the Valencia area, there is this page: Datos actualizados de los embalses en Comunidad Valenciana. which shows there is still a lot of capacity:
View attachment 103303
The diagram above shows an increase of water in the dams around Valencia in the last week of October, but surprisingly there is still capacity remaining, and also less water than at the same time in 2023.

Regarding the unit hm3 used in the table, it corresponds to 100 m3. If one hectare is 10,000 m2, one could collect 100 m3 of water if there was a rainfall of 0.01 m per m2, that is 10 mm of rain, assuming all is collected.

The remaining capacity in the Valencia area is at the moment around 1200 hm3, (1956-762 hm3) which corresponds to 10 mm of rain collected from an area of 1200 hectares. With 100 hectares for each km2, 1200 hectares is a mere 12 km2 or an area of 3 by 4 km. The area that received rain around Valencia was larger than 12 km2 and the amount of precipitation in late October was far, far in excess of 10 mm.

It is odd that the dams the Valencia area does have, were not filled by all the water they received. This could indicate that the catchment area for the rivers that flow into the dams is limited, or that water that fell also had alternative options for getting out of the way. However, even if the dams had been topped up with the extra 1200 hm2, would it really have made all that much of a difference as far as damages are concerned? That is a question engineers and city planners on the spot would better be able to answer.

Whenever man plays God and tries to control nature, nature always wins!!

Bring back the BEAVERS!!

 

[thorbiorn]

Bring back the BEAVERS!!

Since you bring up the topic of beavers, they re-introduced beavers in Denmark, after they were exterminated about a 1000 years ago. "Let's try just one place to improve biodiversity etc." What could possibly go wrong, as if it was overlooked that beavers can breed and spread as do some other rodents. Surprise, surprise, they did and they do, creating damages not first foreseen.

A core of woke green activists work hard for rewilding, and even add to it by doing their own projects. Species appear in places where it is hard to believe they came all by their own. Well, I think Nature knows how to rewild, the rewilders have perhaps not realized they might be in for some action beyond their imagination.

 

[Joe]

Now Sicily

https://twitter.com/x/status/1854878878977663492

 

[Joe]

And Georgia, part of the same system causing the SC flooding above.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1854734643809124460