Flooding in Tafalla 

A twenty-five year old man drowned on Monday July 8^th, 2019, after torrential rains caused major flooding around the towns of Tafalla, Olite and Pueyo, south of the navarran capital of Pamplona, Spain.

⚡ INUNDACIONES TAFALLA | 100 l/m2 en unas pocas horas han caído en #Tafalla. Una situación histórica. Seguiremos informando… pic.twitter.com/l0uzHmmmh8

— Arnaitz Fernández (@Armeteo) July 8, 2019

The area had received an orange warning, second on a scale from yellow to red, for intense rains, from Spanish state weather office Aemet, but locals were unprepared for the intensity of the flooding, caused by a meteorological phenomenon known as a cold drop.

Sections of major roads were washed away and homes and businesses were inundated as the river Cidacos broke its banks

The severity and duration of the weather event surpassed all previous times since records began, 30 years ago. At 17,40 h the height of the river Cidacos was around 11 centimetres. By 10 o’clock that night it had grown to 3,71 metres, according to the Navarran government.

31 Spanish provinces, including Navarra, had been warned earlier about an approaching weather front known in Spanish as a DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos), an isolated high altitude low pressure front, characterised by sudden weather changes accompanied by heavy rainfall.

(Photos and Reporting by Vincent West and Eloy Alonso; Writing by Vincent West.)