Heavy rain has triggered flash floods in Italy and Spain, just weeks after Europe experienced a scorching 40C heatwave and wildfires. Urgent weather warnings have been issued across the two countries, as Europe braces for further violent storms. Low pressure coming from the Atlantic has decreased temperatures in some areas of northern and central Spain by more than 10C.
The clash of cool and hot air is creating unstable, extreme conditions with thunderstorms and torrential rain, as well as powerful wind gusts. Aemet, the state meteorological agency, issued yellow and orange weather alerts for 11 communities, including for much of the eastern half of the Iberian Peninsula for storms, only one day after a rare red alert was issued for Valencia and Alicante amid highs of 44C. The Valencian Association of Meteorology (Avamet) had described the sweltering temperatures as ‘akin to Dante’s Inferno’.
A thunderstorm then battered the province on Thursday taking down trees and damaging buildings, with lightning bolts causing fires. Over 50 emergency interventions were reported by local media, and wind speeds were recorded over 62mph. Flash flooding and landslides last weekend killed three people and injured two children in the village of Manzanedo de Valdueza and the southern Spanish Pyrenees.
Majorcans were also on high alert on Thursday as a big storm hit the Balearic Islands, causing 75 incidents overnight and into Friday. In northern Italy, video footage shows roads turning into rivers and water levels surging. Meteorologists reported that a total of 126mm of rain fell on the northern town of Chiavari, prompting an urgent yellow flood warning for the wider Liguria region.
The risk of flooding in the region is set to run through Friday to around 3pm local time. In southern France, around 200 holidaymakers were evacuated from a campsite in Pégomas as a precaution and taken to local community facilities. A small landslide was also reported near Castillon.
The extreme weather comes just a week after raging infernos engulfed the continent, with blazes burning across France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Croatia, and Germany. The heatwaves and subsequent wildfires caused deaths, the evacuation of 330,000 people from their homes, widespread destruction and clouds of toxic smoke. New data reveals that the 2026 fire season is set to become the third-worst on record according to the European Forest Fire Information Service.
More than 600,000 hectares have burned so far, with records broken for this time of year in Belgium, France and Slovakia. The area affected by wildfires across Europe could almost triple by the end of the century, according to analysis led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The study estimates roughly 39% more land could be burnt every year across the continent by 2100, compared to the current average.
It says climate change is increasing fire activity across Europe as hot, dry and windy conditions become more severe.
