DANA brings storms, hail up to 3 cm and strong winds across Spain on August 15 holiday
An Atlantic trough transitioning into a DANA triggered storms, hail and strong winds across nearly the entire Iberian Peninsula on the August 15 holiday, with multiple communities under orange alert and the system expected to weaken by Sunday.
Formation and conditions
Spain's recent heatwave, with maximum temperatures reaching 42 degrees in many areas, created the conditions for a DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos) that has brought storms, hail and strong winds across the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. The system stems from an Atlantic trough moving west to east across the peninsula, which carries colder air at altitude and drives atmospheric instability after days of intense surface heat. The episode reached its greatest intensity on Saturday afternoon, August 15, a national holiday.
Friday night onset
Instability began to be felt on Friday night. Towns across Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha experienced hailstorms with stones up to three centimetres in diameter, including in Astorga (León), the Sierra de Gredos area in Ávila, and Nerpio (Albacete). In Andalucía, where an earthquake was also reported in Granada, numerous municipalities experienced storms with intense electrical activity. The provinces of Granada, Málaga and Córdoba recorded approximately 900 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, with rainfall reaching up to 25 litres per square metre in some points during the early hours of Saturday.
Saturday alerts and affected areas
- Instability begins overnight; hail up to 3 cm hits Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha; ~900 lightning strikes in Granada, Málaga and Córdoba
- DANA reaches maximum intensity Saturday afternoon; 15 communities under alert, up to 7 at orange level
- DANA weakens as it moves toward the southwest of the peninsula
Nearly the entire Iberian Peninsula and the island of Mallorca were under alert on Saturday for the risk of storms and associated phenomena. Only the Cantabrian coast, Huelva and Cádiz were spared. According to 20 minutos, seven autonomous communities were under orange alert for significant risk of heavy precipitation: Aragón, Castilla y León, Cataluña, Navarra, País Vasco, La Rioja and the Comunidad Valenciana, with accumulated rainfall in one hour potentially exceeding 40 litres per square metre, plus hail larger than two centimetres and very strong wind gusts. LaSexta reported five communities at orange level, listing Aragón, Castilla y León, Cataluña, La Rioja and the Comunidad Valenciana. A further nine communities were on yellow alert: Andalucía, Asturias, Baleares, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid and Murcia. In total, 15 communities were under some form of weather alert.
Flood risk zones and outlook
The areas with the highest flood risk were identified as Alto Ebro (Soria, La Rioja, western Zaragoza), northern Cataluña, Ibérica Sur (Teruel, Cuenca, Castellón, Valencia), the southeast (Granada, northern Almería, interior Murcia and Albacete), and the centre of Castilla y León. From the central hours of the day, storm clouds developed across much of the peninsula and the Balearics, except the southwest, bringing heavy or very heavy precipitation especially in mountainous and eastern areas. The DANA is expected to lose strength on Sunday as it moves toward the southwest of the peninsula.
