Jorge Olcina, a climatologist and professor of regional geographic analysis at the University of Alicante, has warned that DANA storms, the intense weather systems that regularly strike the Iberian Peninsula, are likely to become even stronger than the ones Spain has already endured.
Rising summer temperatures and extreme weather events such as DANAs are among the clearest signs of climate change. Spain became painfully familiar with the phenomenon at the end of 2024, when a devastating DANA tore through the east of the country, leaving 238 people dead, 2,641 injured and extensive material damage.
DANA stands for depresion aislada en niveles altos, or isolated depression at high levels, the Spanish meteorological term for a cut-off low-pressure system that can trigger sudden, intense rainfall and flooding.
Climate scientists have been sounding similar alarms elsewhere. Tim Lenton, a researcher at the University of Exeter, has warned about the danger of ecosystems such as coral reefs crossing their climate limits. Olcina, for his part, first raised his warning about DANAs more than a year ago, in an interview with the YouTube channel EnCambio in April 2025, several months after the deadly 2024 storm.
Why DANAs turn into disasters
Asked in the interview whether Spain could expect DANAs as severe as the one that struck Valencia in 2024, and how the country might prepare for or even prevent them, Olcina said the storms themselves are difficult to predict.
He said it is often assumed that the DANA itself generates the disaster, but argued that the real damage comes from decisions made about land use beforehand, a lack of information reaching the public, and emergency mechanisms that have not been adapted to the new climate reality. He said that is the work Spain now needs to begin.
Breaking records across Spain
Olcina said the past 20 years have shown a clear rise in DANAs and other extreme weather events in Spain, and that the country will have to learn to live with them. He said the storms are likely to become stronger, most likely because Spain, like the rest of the world, is breaking records for temperature, rainfall and wind.
He said living alongside DANAs and other extreme weather means teaching people that they now live in this reality, since many are not fully aware of the danger it represents.
A warning that still stands
Although Olcina made these comments more than a year ago, they remain highly relevant. Spain is likely to face one or more DANAs before the end of the year, and these could be even stronger than the one that struck in 2024.
