DANA in Spain was one of the 15 worst global climate disasters of the year

• Cold drop.DANA, a common phenomenon that this year breaks rain records
• Spain: The unprecedented deployment of the Armed Forces by DANA
• Analysis: Why was the Vega Baja flooded?

The Isolated Depression in High Levels (DANA, in the weather jargon) that hit the southeast of Spain last September was one of the 15 most expensive climate disasters of the year worldwide , according to a report by Christian Aid, an organization international who works to eradicate poverty in the world.

This is reflected in the report Counting the cost of 2019: a year of climate decomposition , which identifies 15 of the most destructive episodes, including droughts , floods , fires , typhoons and cyclones , each of which caused damage of more than one million of dollars.

Seven of them cost more than 10,000 million dollars each, figures that could be underestimated because in some cases only insured losses are included without taking into account productivity costs and effects not covered by insurance .

The report indicates that extreme weather , driven by climate change, hit this year all the populated continents killing, injuring and displacing millions of people, and causing billions of euros in economic damage.

The storm that affected the peninsular Levantine area from September 10 to the 14th turned out to be exceptional due to the lack of similar precedents in at least the last 100 years in Vega Baja del Segura (Murcia), the area most affected by the episode of rains.

Three people trapped in an AP7 tunnel in Alicante

Christian Aid's report highlights that in some areas of Valencia 40 centimeters of rainwater fell in 24 hours , the equivalent of one year of rain. Six weather stations broke new rain records . The most affected areas were Valencia, Alicante, Malaga and the Balearic Islands . The floods killed seven people and caused a cost of about 2.4 billion dollars (about 2.160 million euros).

The floods caused the closure of schools and airports , forced to declare a state of emergency in several regions, more than 1,100 soldiers were deployed , more than 3,500 people were evicted from their homes and several railway lines were cut and traffic of about 80 roads, especially in Murcia and Alicante.

California, India and China

On the other hand, the most expensive disasters of the year in the world were the October and November forest fires in California (25,000 million dollars), the typhoon 'Hagibis' in Japan (15,000 million) and the floods in the American Middle East ( 12,500 million) and in China (12,000 million).

The catastrophes with the greatest loss of human life turned out to be the floods in northern India , which killed about 1,900 people, and the cyclone 'Idai', which killed nearly 1,300 people.

All these catastrophes are linked to climate change of human origin . Some of them have shown that the climate crisis made the episode more likely or stronger (for example, cyclone 'Idai' in Africa and floods in India and the United States).

In others, the event was due to changes in weather patterns , such as an increase in temperatures and low rainfall, which made fires more likely, or warmer waters that fed tropical storms.

DANA is primed with the Balearic Islands

The report focuses on the financial cost of the extreme climate driven by climate change, but the human cost for vulnerable communities in developing countries is even higher than the financial one. In addition, there are slow-onset droughts and maritime intrusions that progressively impact millions of people worldwide.

Last January there were floods in Argentina and Uruguay that forced some 11,000 people to leave their homes, and in Australia, with some places that received more rain than ever since records began in 1888.

In March, the Eberhard storm spread across Europe while cyclone Idai caused death and devastation in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi. The floods began to accumulate huge financial losses in the US Midwest ($ 12.5 billion) and Iran ($ 8.3 billion).

Damages of $ 28,000 million were recorded in May and June in Asia : Cyclone Fani hit India and Bangladesh, parts of China received their highest rainfall in 60 years and a stronger monsoon than usual in northern India caused floods that killed 1,900 people.

In September and October, typhoons Faxai and Hagibis caused more than 20,000 million damages in Japan and disrupted the Rugby World Cup, which was being held there. In North America, Hurricane Dorian caused destruction along the east coast from the Bahamas to Canada and killed 673 people.

"No continent is immune"

Adelle Thomas , director of the Climate Change Research Center at the University of the Bahamas, commented that "the great tragedy of climate change is that it is the poorest and most vulnerable who suffer most , despite doing the minimum to cause it."

"However, as this year has shown, no continent is immune to global warming and its impacts. It is vital that countries take a step forward and deliver stronger action plans and much greater ambition before the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November".

Michael Mann , director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University (United States), stressed that "2019 saw extreme weather events even deeper throughout the world than last year, including forest fires from the Amazon to the Arctic devastating off-season, simultaneous wildfires in California and Australia, winter heat waves and devastating super-storms. "

" 2020 is going to be a great year for the way the world responds to the growing climate crisis . We have the biggest summit since the Paris agreement was signed five years ago, which takes place in Glasgow, where countries must commit to further reduce their emissions in line with the 1.5 ° C temperature limit, and increase funding for poor countries that suffer the type of impacts seen in this report, "said Kat Kramer, world climate leader at Christian Aid and co-author of the investigation.

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