Storm depression Gloria

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Gloria
Gloria over the Atlantic on January 17th, 2020
Gloria over the Atlantic on January 17th, 2020
Gloria
storm Strong winds
Heavy rain
Floods
Storm surge
Data
Emergence 19th January 2020
resolution January 25, 2020
consequences
Victim 14th

The storm Gloria was a winter storm in Spain and southern France in January 2020 the number of meteorological records broke. 14 people lost their lives and 82 were injured as a result of the storm. There was great economic damage.

Meteorological process

The storm low began its meteorological career as a rapidly moving eastward North Atlantic low and was named Gloria on January 17, 2020 by the Spanish weather service AEMET . On January 18, it was north-west of the Iberian Peninsula , which it crossed in a south-westerly direction on the night of January 19. Over England there was an extensive high pressure area with a central air pressure of more than 1050 hPa , which was the highest value measured there since 1957. This high, in conjunction with Gloria, ensured a very large gradient force and thus strong east winds from southern France to the Balearic Islands , on the other hand it carried cold air masses from the continent to Spain. On January 19th, wind gusts of 133 km / h were measured on the Puerto de Leitariegos mountain pass in Asturias . Before Gloria had reached Spain, humid air masses of subtropical origin lay over the peninsula, which was now carried by the storm low. The result was a storm with sustained rainfall, extensive snowfall, strong winds, rough seas and numerous lightning bolts .

AEMET issued weather warnings for numerous regions of Spain, especially for coastal regions and the southeast. The actual storm depression Gloria went up on January 20 over the Mediterranean in a larger low pressure system, which remained weather-determining over the western Mediterranean for a few days. It ensured abundant precipitation and snow down to the deep, in eastern Spain sometimes down to 300 meters. In some areas of the provinces of Tarragona , Castellón and Teruel, over one meter of fresh snow fell. In Teruel, some places were cut off from the outside world. Most recently, unstable air masses were directed from the Gulf of Cádiz over the Spanish Mediterranean coast of the Alborán Sea, causing persistent rain and sometimes hail in the province of Málaga . On January 26th, the low moved towards Italy and was no longer weather-effective.

Records

Storms have been occurring in the Spanish Mediterranean region since 2017 , which are unprecedented both in terms of recorded weather data and compared to historical sources. Gloria was the third Mediterranean storm to break weather records in nine months. In the five days from April 18 to 22, 2019, a storm in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula brought five times the amount of precipitation of an average April or twice the amount of precipitation of an average spring in the region. The storm in September 2019 recorded the most intense and extensive rain in the last 50 years in the Murcia region , while the comarca Vega Baja del Segura in the province of Alicante had the most intense rainfall since 1879. Storm Gloria also broke several records.

The development is in line with warnings that human-caused global warming can cause ever more frequent and intense extreme weather events.

Lightning bolts

On January 21st, 3,035 lightning bolts occurred in the Valencian Community , the highest rate since records began in the 1990s.

Precipitation

Numerous measuring stations recorded high levels of precipitation. From January 19 to 23, more than 300 liters of precipitation were measured in seven measuring stations. In Barx it was as much as 433 liters, more than four times the usual precipitation in a whole January. On January 21, record levels of precipitation were set in several locations: At Barcelona Airport , 27 liters were measured in 24 hours, the highest value in almost 75 years. In Tortosa and Daroca twice as much rain fell as in the previous record events. Due to snowfall in Vilafranca , the snowpack reached a height of 86 centimeters, six centimeters above the previous maximum of 1968.

Wave height

With a significant wave height of 8.44 meters on January 20th, a new record was set in the western Mediterranean. The previous record was 8.15 meters and was reached in 2003. Based on the measurement data, it is estimated that the highest wave heights were more than 13 meters. On the same day, a regional record was set in the Balearic Islands with a significant wave height of 7.97 meters, which clearly exceeded the previous record of 6.33 meters from 2017. A measuring buoy registered the highest wave ever measured there with a wave height of 14.2 meters.

Victim

According to a balance sheet by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior on January 28, 14 people were killed, 82 were injured and three were reported missing as a result of the storm. No one was harmed in France .

Damage

Spain

The storm-felled sculpture David i Goliat in Barcelona

The storm caused severe traffic obstructions. Roads and railways had to be closed, and operations in some ports were temporarily suspended. There were failures in power, water and cellular networks. On January 21, 220,000 people were temporarily without electricity. Many schools remained closed and classes were canceled for around 200,000 students. Numerous rivers flooded, in some cases severe floods. Several bridges were destroyed by the water masses. In Tossa de Mar and other communities on the Costa Brava , algae foam whipped up by the storm stood meters high in the streets.

In the Ebro Delta , large areas were flooded and rice fields were destroyed. The waves of the storm surge penetrated up to three kilometers inland, the salt water reduces the future soil fertility of the flooded fields. In the delta of the Llobregat and in the river valley of the Tordera , floods and storm surges also caused major damage to agriculture. Fields were covered with mud, the crops destroyed.

Great damage occurred along the Mediterranean coast. Beach promenades and buildings on the beach were damaged, and entire sandy beaches were washed away in the province of Valencia and the Balearic Islands. Every beach in the Barcelona metropolitan area has suffered the worst damage in 30 years.

Around 10,000 tuna escaped from a fish farm near L'Ametlla de Mar during the storm . Fishermen in the area found numerous dead tuna while fishing and fear that the rotting fish in the nets could contaminate their catch.

More than 17,500 households still had no tap water a week after the storm. Wells and drinking water pipes were damaged, and in many places the tap water is polluted or polluted with high nitrate levels . In Torroella de Montgrí , where the drinking water treatment plant was flooded and damaged, restoring the water supply will take at least three more weeks. In Hostalric the Arbúcies overflowed the banks and polluted the wells. As a result, the city of 4,100 people had no drinking water and had to be supplied with tank trucks. The local water had to be treated with chlorine due to the microbial load .

Aon, a company specializing in risk management, estimates the financial loss in Spain at more than US $ 200 million.

France

The flood-bearing tech on January 22nd

The storm was also noticeable in southern France, especially in the Pyrénées-Orientales department . The Autoroute A 9 was closed near the Spanish border.

Flood warning level red was issued for the rivers Aude and Agly , and the flood warning was extended to the Ariège and Hers-Vif rivers a little later . Emergency forces have been ordered to the region. Almost 2,000 residents were evacuated. 23,000 households were temporarily without electricity. There were local floods and landslides.

A landslide caused by the precipitation blocked an irrigation canal, the overflowing water of which undermined the RN 116 road . For repair work, the route between Fontpédrouse and Mont-Louis had to be closed for at least three weeks.

Web links

Commons : Storm Low Gloria  - Collection of Images

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c Referencia del Consejo de Ministros. In: lamoncloa.gob.es . January 28, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020 (Spanish).
  2. ↑ Borrasca Gloria. In: aemet.es . Retrieved February 9, 2020 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ a b c d e La borrasca "Gloria" es el tercer temporal mediterráneo en nueve meses que bate récords históricos. In: aemet.es . January 28, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020 (Spanish).
  4. ^ Tempête Gloria: "Cela pose des questions sur l'aménagement du territoire". In: leparisien.fr . January 25, 2020, accessed on February 10, 2020 (French).
  5. ↑ Sam Jones: Nine dead and four missing as storm Gloria batters Spain. In: theguardian.com . January 22, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020.
  6. ↑ Already three dead in Spain by storm "Gloria". In: orf.at . January 21, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020.
  7. ↑ Great devastation caused by storm "Gloria" in Spain. In: orf.at . January 23, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020.
  8. ↑ Nine dead and great devastation in Spain after Storm Gloria. In: derstandard.at . January 23, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020.
  9. ↑ a b c Storm “Gloria”: Satellite images show the flooded Ebro Delta. In: orf.at . January 22, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020.
  10. ^ A b c Marta Rodríguez, Ferran Bono, Marc Rovira, Susana Urra: Effects of Storm Gloria in Spain: “Recovery will be very tough”. In: elpais.com . January 24, 2020, accessed on February 9, 2020.
  11. ↑ Josep Catà: “El Gloria aquí pasa un poco cada año”. In: elpais.com . February 6, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020 (Spanish).
  12. ↑ Numerous beaches in Mallorca after a storm without sand. In: nau.ch . February 7, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020.
  13. ↑ Marc Rovira: El temporal Gloria causó la fuga de 10,000 atunes de una granja marina de l'Ametlla. In: elpais.com . February 4, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020 (Spanish).
  14. ^ Marta Rodríguez: More than 17,500 hogares siguen sin agua una semana después del temporal. In: elpais.com . January 28, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020 (Spanish).
  15. ↑ Global Catastrophe Recap: January 2020. (PDF; 606 kB) In: aonbenfield.com . February 6, 2020, accessed on February 11, 2020.
  16. ↑ Tempête Gloria: 4 departments en vigilance rouge et orange, plus 1500 evacuations. In: bfmtv.com . January 22, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020 (French).
  17. ↑ Fabrice Dubault: Tempête Gloria: l'Agly en alerte rouge, 1,500 riverains du fleuve évacués dans les Pyrénées-Orientales. In: francetvinfo.fr . January 22, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020 (French).
  18. ^ Tempête Gloria: près de 2,000 habitants évacués dans le sud de la France. In: lemonde.fr . January 23, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020 (French).
  19. ↑ Emma Derome: EN IMAGES. Inondations dans l'Aude et les Pyrénées-Orientales au troisième jour de la tempête Gloria. In: francetvinfo.fr . January 23, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020 (French).
  20. ↑ Joane Mériot: RN116 dans les Pyrénées-Orientales: pas de réouverture annoncée avant 3 semaines. In: francetvinfo.fr . February 6, 2020, accessed on February 9, 2020 (French).