According to Spain’s national weather agency, Aemet, on 29 October 2024, Valencia received a year’s worth of rain in just eight hours. This deluge caused devastating flash floods, turning streets into rivers, destroying homes, infrastructure, and sweeping away vehicles.
This image shows soil saturation in Spain on 29 October, processed using data from ESA’s SMOS mission. Short for Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity, the SMOS mission is dedicated to making global observations of soil moisture over land and salinity over oceans. The satellite carries a novel interferometric radiometer that operates in the L-band microwave range to capture ‘brightness temperature’ images. These images are used to derive maps of soil moisture and ocean salinity.
The image clearly shows how wet the ground was around Valencia, and also in other parts of the country on the day of the floods.