October 28, 2025
These two satellite images, captured on October 30, 2024, and October 1, 2025, show the severe impact of the torrential rains that took place in October 2024 in the Valencia Community.
The October 29, 2024 cold drop, known as the DANA, caused flooding that severely damaged a total of 78 municipalities, most of them in Valencia. Andalusia, Murcia, and Castile-La Mancha also suffered damage, but it was the Valencia region that suffered the most devastating consequences.
The DANA caused the deaths of more than 200 people, caused significant damage to infrastructure, and left enormous economic losses.
According to the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), the town of Chiva, located in the Valencia region, received 491 liters per square meter in just eight hours, which is equivalent to a year’s worth of rainfall. The rains resulted in a violent flood that overflowed the Barranco del Poyo and flooded towns such as Alfafar, Catarroja, Massanassa, and Paiporta, destroying everything in its path.
The meteorological phenomenon known as DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos, or isolated high-level depression), occurs when a mass of warm air from the Mediterranean Sea merges with another mass of cold air from the polar regions, causing unstable conditions and generating extreme weather events such as those seen in Valencia in the fall of 2024.
At Sonda Internacional, we were able to produce two reports highlighting the consequences of the DANA: “Paiporta swept away” and “No one arrived in time.”
Credits:
2024: Nasa Landsat-8 USGS
2025: Copernicus Sentinel data 2025
