09/11/2024
Hi all!
First of all, there’s no need to be alarmed. A DANA is not necessarily synonymous with torrential rains and flooding.
The DANA (Isolated High-Level Depression) is, simply put (and somewhat inaccurately), a pocket of cold air at high atmospheric levels. When this DANA encounters warm, moist air, it can result in storms and potentially very heavy rains. DANAs are common phenomena that occur every year in the Mediterranean, but for these heavy rains to reach inland, three ingredients are needed: a warm Mediterranean Sea (which we currently have), cold air at high altitudes (which we’ll likely have in the coming days), and a flow of moist wind from the Mediterranean Sea moving inland. If any of these ingredients is missing, torrential rains won’t occur.
In fact, when there is only a warm sea and a DANA over the coast but no landward wind flow, the moisture usually remains over the sea, leading to most of the torrential rains staying over the Mediterranean itself, while inland areas experience only limited or scattered rainfall.
Thus, an extensive DANA will approach Spanish territory in the coming days, potentially bringing rain across the entire Mediterranean coast, including, of course, Andalusia and the Costa del Sol. This does not mean that all these areas will be affected, nor that torrential rain is certain in any of them. However, it does seem likely that rain will occur in these areas starting next Wednesday, and depending on wind flow, the possibility of torrential rains could arise again. Nevertheless, this cannot be confirmed in the medium term, so it won’t be clear whether such intense rainfall might occur until one or two days beforehand.
I’ll keep you informed.
Best regards.
