Spain floods: Horrifying weather maps show true scale of sickening floods that have killed 158 people

Satellite images show the landscape in Spain before and after devastating floods this week. Some areas saw more than 400 litres of rain per square metre fall on Tuesday

Horrifying weather maps show the true scale of unprecedented floods that have hit Spain this week, killing at least 158 people.

Satellite images illustrate how different the landscape in the area south of Valencia looks before and after the floods, which scientists linked to climate change. A satellite image from October 8 shows the area around the Albufera lagoon, located approximately 12km south of Valencia, being dry.

However, an image taken on October 30 shows the whole area covered in water, close to Valencia and also further down, near the city of Alzira. In the worst-affected areas, more than 400 litres of rain per square metre fell on Tuesday, according to records.

Rubén del Campo, a spokesman for Spain's meteorological agency, told El País newspaper that a "powerful downpour" in summer or spring usually sees about 40 or 50 litres per square metre - meaning that the amount of rain this week was multiplied by 10. Spain's Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storm that can cause flooding, but the latest downpour was the most powerful flash flood in recent memory.

Scientists said this is linked to climate change, which is also behind increasingly high temperatures and droughts in the country, and the heating up of the Mediterranean Sea. According to analysis World Weather Attribution, human-caused climate change has doubled the likelihood of a storm like this week's deluge in Valencia.

Spain has suffered through an almost two-year drought, meaning that when the deluge happened, the ground was so hard that it could not absorb the rain, leading to flash floods. The violent weather event surprised regional government officials. Spain's national weather service said it rained more in eight hours in the Valencian town of Chiva than it had in the preceding 20 months.

In Paiporta, mayor Maribel Albalat said on Thursday that at least 62 people had perished in the community of 25,000 next to Valencia city. "(Paiporta) never has floods, we never have this kind of problem. And we found a lot of elderly people in the town center," Albalat told RTVE. "There were also a lot of people who came to get their cars out of their garages ... it was a real trap."

Luís Sánchez, a welder, said he saved several people who were trapped in their cars on the flooded V-31 highway south of Valencia city. The road rapidly became a floating graveyard strewn with hundreds of vehicles. "I saw bodies floating past. I called out, but nothing," Sánchez said. "The firefighters took the elderly first, when they could get in. I am from nearby so I tried to help and rescue people. People were crying all over, they were trapped."

Heavy rain continued yesterday farther north as the Spanish weather agency issued alerts for several counties in Castellón, in the eastern Valencia region, and for Tarragona in Catalonia, as well as southwest Cadiz. "This storm front is still with us," the prime minister said. "Stay home and heed the official recommendation and you will help save lives."