As I write this – October 2024 – there is something of a ‘Dana’ event – a high level low pressure thingy apparently which creates massive rainfall in a short period. It causes utter chaos in Spain because there is zero preparation.
This is the same country which has ‘endured’ decades of drought yet refuses to spend money on desalination plants. The country that waters golf courses yet refuses to allow its council tax payers to water their plants owning to ‘drought conditions’ and turns off the water at night.
The claim is that the water they blow on keeping golf courses green is not drinking water. It still has to come from the same sky and the same reservoir. It just doesn’t cost so much as it isn’t treated and filtered quite so much.
Spanish people HATE rain. I have known whole events ‘property launch open days’ cancelled because ‘the forecast says’ it will rain. My neighbours walk around looking like north sea fisherman in sou’westers when we just carry an umbrella. I think they’re secretly soluble in water. The big problem is the infrastructure which of course being Spain is chronically under maintained. No budget for gully clearing on roads, when it rains they all flood – hugely – and create real danger for drivers with massive standing water, floods, surface spray – and of course this being Spain they don[t slow down at all for bad weather.
Add to this the six months’ rubber on the road and you have a recipe for disaster. Poor adhesion, excessive speed, poor visibility – not a good mix.
Rain for Spanish people is a bit like Snow for English people – videos of it feature on Facebook, they stay inside and peep around the curtains at it, avoiding going out unless they have to. For the brits, its just a bit of water!