The city of Barcelona and the surrounding municipalities have experienced the rainiest Saturday, at least, in the last twenty years, according to data collected by the Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya (Meteocat).
The torrential rains that have fallen since mid-afternoon on Saturday on the coast of Catalonia, which is in a state of emergency due to the formation of a mesoscale convective system (MCS) in the Mediterranean, have left records of more than 100 and 200 liters per square meter, from yesterday until 6 a.m. this morning, in the regions of Maresme, Vallès Oriental, Barcelonès, Osona and Baix Llobregat.
The 247.9 liters per square meter of Granollers (Vallès Oriental), the 244.1 of Mataró and the 231.7 of Cabrils (Maresme), the 202.2 of Puig Sesolles and the 194.5 of Roca del Vallès (Vallès Oriental) are striking.
In the case of the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, 3.4 liters have fallen in one minute and 36.1 in half an hour. These data, explains Meteocat, are almost double those recorded on March 24, 2017, when 95.4 liters fell in this neighborhood.
This Sunday morning, the Civil Protection of the Generalitat announced the sending of a new Es-Alert to the mobile phones of the population of the regions of Vallès Oriental, Maresme, Selva, Baix Empordà and Gironès to remind them of the need to respect the mobility restriction in the event of torrential rain.
The residents of these regions of the province of Barcelona and Girona received the alert shortly before 7 a.m., as reported by Protecció Civil in its X account.
Meteocat points out that the precipitation this morning continues to be strong and torrential extensively and persistently in Catalonia. Bands of showers are slowly moving northwards and moving from east to west.
“We still have hours left” of precipitation, Meteocat advances on social networks, in which it specifies that “the accumulation of rain will be exceptional due to the amount and extent.”
The Firefighters of the Generalitat of Catalonia have received a total of 682 calls until three in the morning this Sunday, most of them for floods, as a result of the heavy rains that fall in the region, although so far they have not attended to incidents with people seriously injured.
The Firefighters have reported that the majority of calls have been received from the south of the Barcelona metropolitan area (439 calls); from the north of the capital conurbation (239); as well as three from the Girona area, and two from the center of Catalonia. Between two and three in the morning, the Firefighters have received 151 flood warnings.
Sources from the Fire Department have explained to EFE that most of the services they have carried out tonight are in flooded basements and premises, as well as on upper floors, where water has entered from the roof due to insufficient drainage.
They have also treated people who had been trapped in their cars, blocked by water, and have worked to remove trees and street furniture on public roads. In no case, they have specified, have people at imminent risk been cared for.
The emergency telephone number 112, for its part, had received a total of 3,042 calls since the beginning of this episode and until one in the morning, of which 2,252 were for incidents caused by flooding.
The cities from which it has received the most calls were Barcelona (991), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (683), and Cornellà (103).
The torrential rains that have fallen in recent hours have raised the level of the flow of the Besòs River in its final stretch to exceed the danger threshold, with an imminent risk of flooding in the area, reported the Catalan Water Agency (ACA).
The Besòs was descending through Santa Coloma de Gramanet (Barcelona) at 3 a.m. with a flow of 520 cubic meters per second, which led the ACA to issue a hydrological risk warning.
The ACA has also issued a warning due to the increase in flow in the Ripoll river, a tributary of the Besòs, which as it passed through Montcada i Reixac (Barcelona) accumulated 129 cubic meters, which has therefore exceeded the alert threshold.
Civil Protection sources have informed EFE that all access to the Besòs Fluvial Park, in the final stretch of this river, is closed due to the imminent risk of flooding.
In the Llobregat basin, south of the Catalan capital, the flow of the Rubí stream has also grown exponentially, which flows into the aforementioned river and which on its way through El Papiol (Barcelona) accumulated 168 cubic meters per second after three in the morning when at nine at night it was 2.9.
