floods

After the floods in China, the vice president of BYD has had to remember that their cars are not boats. Its owners have not cared

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Dozens of BYD electric cars have circulated these days on completely flooded roads in the Chinese region of Guangxi, transporting food, water and emergency supplies to villages isolated by the rains. The striking thing is that it was not a decision organized by the brand, but those who left with their cars for the affected areas were volunteers, and they did so just when a senior executive of the company asked for caution regarding the risk of driving through floods. What has happened? Guangxi has suffered historic rains caused by Typhoon Mesaak, with roads and entire municipalities under water. According to collect According to Chinese media, 163, owners of vehicles from brands such as Denza and Fang Cheng Bao, both from the BYD group, organized themselves through networks of owners to form civil rescue convoys. These groups voluntarily entered the areas most affected by the flood, ignoring the recommendations for driving in extreme weather conditions. In detail. Chinese electric cars they usually boast of a construction designed to resist water, including batteries with a highly protective seal and reinforced chassis to cross flooded areas. In the case of Fang Cheng Bao, its independent chassis architecture allows, according to factory data, to cross up to 800 millimeters deep thanks to a specific structural sealing on the underside of the vehicle. And it is not the first time that we see this type of vehicle going out for a ride in extreme conditions. Last year we already saw vehicles like the Yangwang U8 and the Jetour Zongheng G700 do the goat crossing rivers or in flooded areas. There is certainly no better advertising. The notice that arrived late. While the owners were already circulating through the flooded areas, He Zhiqi, senior vice president of BYD, published a message on social networks reminding that an electric car “is not a boat”, according to his Weibo account. The manager explained that, although the Blade Battery of the brand has watertightness certifications IP67 and IP68and that from the factory it is guaranteed that the vehicle can withstand being submerged up to one meter deep for 24 hours without suffering electrical leaks or risk of fire in the battery, driving through deep water is still a real risk that should be avoided. Models on the ground. Among the vehicles that have been seen in the images, the Denza N9 stands out, the brand’s large luxury plug-in hybrid that, according to account CarNewsChina managed to move through areas of mud and water thanks to its all-wheel drive system with several independent motors. The Fang Cheng Bao Bao 8 has also been seen circulating, an all-terrain vehicle with a harder profile with a suspension designed to better distribute the load, in addition to the Denza B5 and B8, which incorporate active body control systems capable of adjusting the height on the fly to avoid obstacles. The money has also moved. In addition to help on the ground, several Chinese brands They have allocated funds to the reconstruction of the area. The BYD Charitable Foundation has donated 10 million yuan (about 1.47 million U.S. dollars) to fund emergency equipment and repair public infrastructure. Xiaomi has contributed the same amount in cash, and the Chery group has donated another 10 million yuan divided between financial aid and supplies. Cover image | CarNewsChina (Bilibili) In Xataka | Sky Nomad is a reality: Xiaomi’s second car brand aims at one of the jewels in BYD’s crown

It turns out that in France there is a road that the Atlantic floods twice a day. By crossing it, you risk a ransom

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On the Cantabrian coast in the summer it is relatively common for a tourist’s vehicle to end up taking a dip when they park where they shouldn’t, but in the Passage du Gois In France there is no surprise factor: the road sinks when the tide rises, something that happens twice a day. Given the risk, it would be worth considering closing that route and using the alternative Noirmoutier bridgebut there are many people here who have come to play: in 2021 exactly 387,823 vehicles passed by, according to data from the Noirmoutier Tourist Office. If you’re one of those people who ventures out, the landscape is already iconic: the Tour de France has started there on several occasions. Now there is a road, now there is not. The Passage du Gois is 4,125 kilometers long and runs through Bourgneuf Bay, literally in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. On one side is the island of Noirmoutier and the connection with the rest of the continent takes place in Beauvoir-sur-Mer, near Nantes. This infrastructure belongs to the D948 network of the Vendée department. The passage or not is determined by the tides: according to the tidal coefficient That day, the road is covered by between 1.30 and 4 meters of water at each high tide. The Passage du Gois on Google Maps To pass or not to pass, that is the question. Step recommendations from the local tourist office are enough to make you think twice before crossing: if the tide coefficient is high, you have 90 minutes before and after low tide. When the coefficient is low, the margin is reduced so much that it is recommended to cross only at the exact moment of low tide. If you measure wrong, you’re risking it: four kilometers can be fatal. The good news is that Since the 19th century there have been nine safety beacons where you can leave the car and wait for the tide to go out or the emergency services to arrive. Spoiler: every year there are cars that end badly. Everything is signposted, but the authorities They have encountered another enemy unexpected: the GPS, which does not indicate low tides or weather conditions. Be very careful if you are one of those people who follows what Google Maps says to the letter. The movements of the tides in the Passage du Gois. Marine Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service Why build a road there?. Short answer: because nature put it there. Not so short answer: the origin of the Passage du Gois is geological: it was formed by the convergence of two opposite currents, one from the northwest influenced by the Loire estuary and another from the south influenced by the Atlantic. Both are found on the island and slow down there, producing a phenomenon known as wantijthat is, the deposition of particles at that point of collision of the currents, which causes the seabed to rise until it forms that natural back on which the roadway was planted. Building it was not easy or fast. Paving the road lasted five yearsfrom 1935 to 1939, which sounds truly outrageous even though it is almost a century old. The reason is that the works had to be carried out during low tide, which greatly limited the daily work time to two daily periods in a period of about two hours. From then on, the road was passable for vehicles on its already characteristic cement slabs. Since then, several sections have been subject to different paving tests that have never come to fruition. A future that looks very blue black. The Passage du Gois floodable road is neither the first nor the longest, but it is one of the first candidates to disappear in the immediate future. Considering sea level rise projections provided by the IPCC of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will be between 0.38 and 0.77 meters by 2100, with different emissions scenarios starting in 2050. This implies that roads like this will see their safe operating window progressively reduced, making it increasingly unviable and dangerous. In Xataka | “We have six kilometers that have melted due to the heat”: in the face of extreme temperatures, France needs to Spanishize its roads In Xataka | If we already feared about the state of our roads, we have one more reason to worry: the price of asphalt is skyrocketing Cover | Pinpin and Florian Pepellin

Since the 70s, every time it rains heavily, west London floods without anyone being able to do anything. Until, in 2023, the beavers appeared

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The truth is that the headline is irresistible: a family of beavers have resolved in a handful of months a problem that London Underground engineers had been unable to solve for years. Rodents 1 – humans 0. The problem is that, as almost always, the story is more complex. It is true that engineers have spent years trying to find the best way to fix it, but the truth is that they did find a way to do it. And that way, it included beavers. What really happened to the London Underground beavers? On October 11, 2023, a family of five Eurasian beavers were released into Paradise Field, a former golf course west of the British capital. In that area of ​​Ealing and every time it rained, the Costons Brook stream overflowed and caused enormous flooding. Since the 70s, whenever it rained heavily, the area became an improvised swimming pool. 2024 was the first year in which this did not happen. “The UK’s first urban beaver count”. Sourced from wild populations in Scotland and financed by the city’s mayor’s office, the project has been a success. Now, in fact, There are now eight beavers that live in the area. Why has it happened? That beavers have “beavered.” Little by little they have built a dense network of dams that retain and release the water slowly, turning the Paradise Field into a sponge. This has protected the subway tracks, the station and the rest of the urban environment. Why is it interesting? For many things, but especially for money. Between 2015 and 2021, the United Kingdom spent about 2.6 billion pounds in flood defenses and estimates spoke of doubling that figure. The beaver colony and urban park system are a bargain by comparison. And not only at the urban level, everything is said. The River Otter trial, in Devon (2015-2020), does allow us to talk about effectiveness and points to a reduction in flood peaks of 30-60%. Can we learn something from it? In reality, we will have no other choice: for years There are people releasing beavers all over Spain. The question is whether we can do something to solve the eternal problem of recurring floods (in a context in which DANAs are going to become increasingly frequent and intense). But, of course, for that we have to understand well what has happened. It’s not like five beavers snuck into London’s sewers like ninja turtles and solved everything. A team of engineers and biologists have designed an intervention in which beavers have turned out to be wonderful. It remains to be seen what happens in the future and begin to accept that it is still better to collaborate with nature than to continue fighting against it. Image | Xataka In Xataka | After centuries of disappearance, there are people releasing beavers into the Tagus and other rivers in Spain. The problem is that we don’t know who

After deploying its data centers in Aragon, Amazon wants to protect Zaragoza from floods

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On July 6, 2023, a torrential storm collapsed the Barranco de la Muerte in Zaragoza, leaving the Z-30 under two meters of water and causing damage valued at 125 million euros, as collects The Herald. Among the affected structures, the high-speed train between Madrid and Barcelona and the capital’s main ring road. This natural disaster made it clear that Zaragoza lacked hydraulic infrastructure capable of absorbing extreme weather events, increasingly frequent with climate change, such as explains AEMET. In response, the City Council made a plan structured in three phases and began conversations with Amazon Web Services, the hyperscaler that Aragón has chosen for its data centers in Spain: the result is a public-private alliance that combines hydraulic infrastructure and real-time monitoring technology with the aim of turning Zaragoza into a European benchmark for urban resilience. Zaragoza, flood-proof. The Zaragoza City Council and AWS with the collaboration of the Government of Aragon and the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation have agreed implement a global technological and hydraulic strategy for environmental risk management. Amazon will contribute 13.8 million euros, distributed in three annual installments. The collaboration has two legs: a physical one, with the construction of hydraulic infrastructure in the Barranco de la Muerte; and another technological, with the deployment of an intelligent early warning platform based on the AWS cloud. Why is it important. This system will benefit more than 700,000 people who live in the Aragonese capital, in addition to protecting critical infrastructure for the city such as the Z-30, the train and entire neighborhoods such as Parque Venecia, today exposed to intense storms. Beyond the scope of the work, this is one of the few cases in Spain where a large technology company directly finances public civil protection infrastructure as a condition of its installation in the territory, which puts a question on the table: what the companies that consume the most resources can and should contribute to the cities that host them. Context. AWS maintains one of the largest investment plans in digital infrastructure in Spain: in 2024 announced an investment of 15.7 billion euros in Aragon over the next decade to expand its cloud infrastructure and new data center campuses in Villanueva de Gállego, El Burgo de Ebro and Huesca. This expansion has a B side: enormous pressure on the territory’s electrical, water and transportation networks. The Barranco de la Muerte is not an isolated case: the Valencia DANA of October 2024 left more than 220 dead and politically accelerated the demand for drainage infrastructure in vulnerable urban areas. Zaragoza, with active ravines and a climate prone to intense convective storms, is one of them. How are they going to do it?. From the point of view of hydraulic works, it is a lamination of avenues combined with sustainable urban drainage enhanced with real-time monitoring. The plan is divided into three technical phases. The first, financed by the council and already underway, consists of a perimeter canal and a retaining wall around the Barranco de la Muerte. The second, financed by AWS, adds a storm tank next to the Torrero Cemetery with a capacity for 20,000 cubic meters, five lamination dams and the improvement of the existing ones upstream of Z-40. The third would bury the ravine as it passes through Z-30 with a collector that would double the current drainage capacity. Added to this is a cloud platform that will combine sensors, artificial intelligence and real-time analysis to monitor flows and launch early warnings. That is to say: the physical infrastructure retains and laminates the water, and the technological infrastructure anticipates when and how much will arrive. AWS support is not only financial: it provides digitalization and predictive hydraulics that multiply the effectiveness of physical infrastructure. Yes, but. The collaboration is a real advance for the city, but it raises uncomfortable questions. The first is obvious: Amazon does not pay for these works out of altruism: its data centers in Aragon are voracious consumers of water and energy, so building water infrastructure in the city is a win-win: it minimizes the risk of supply failures in the event of potential natural disasters and improves its image while strengthening ties with the authorities. Water management is one of the thorny points of data centers and with its proliferation increases scrutiny and protests over the consumption of a scarce good, such as Amazon has already suffered itself in Aragon. On the other hand, for the alert technological platform to be useful, it will be an essential requirement that it be accompanied by proven evacuation and response protocols, which turns an alert into a real solution. How they plan to do it is something that has not been publicly disclosed at the moment. In Xataka | Zaragoza is so full of data centers that Amazon has decided to take one to… a town in Teruel with 900 inhabitants In Xataka | Quietly, Aragón is becoming a data center “powerhouse”: now it has taken a crucial step Cover | David Vives and AWS

After historic rains and floods in Andalusia and Extremadura, it is the turn of another region: the Mediterranean

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Right now, as I write these lines, Catalonia is closed hard due to strong gusts of wind. From 12 midnight to 8:00 p.m., all educational and sports activities and non-urgent health care are suspended. But it is not the only bad news that comes from the Mediterranean: the flow of the Júcar has been shot as it passes through Cuenca (that is, before any important tributary flows into it) and has already entered the red level. We are talking about an account that, discounting Tous (which is at 34% and is for security reasons), has all its reservoirs above 70% capacity. What is happening in the Mediterranean? Beyond the last storms. Yes, it is true: the reservoirs are in an unbeatable moment after the accumulated rains since January 1 exceed three times the normal value (for the average of the years 1991-2020). In fact, the water reserve has experienced the best week of growth since records began: in just seven days, the levels have grown by 10.1%. The problem is that reservoirs and aquifers are not the only places where water accumulates. Therefore, changing patterns is a poisoned gift. Let’s not fool ourselves, it’s still raining in many areas of the country. Less than the previous weeks, but it’s still raining. However, as explains Andrea Danta“the first day without widespread rain in Spain will come as a consequence of a progressive reorganization of atmospheric circulation that will begin at the end of this week and will be consolidated as of Sunday, February 15.” And that, paradoxically, will also have its problems. It’s time to think about the snow. And, when we talk about Júcar, for example, it is inevitable to remember that as of February 2026 the Iberian system () has exceptional thicknesses well above normal at this time. And that snow is going to melt (As will also happen with that of the Pyrenees). And, inevitably, it will end up in the Mediterranean. As is evident, there are many things to take into account: we do not know what will happen in the coming months and how long the thaw will last. But, a priori, problems with the current water situation are almost guaranteed. And that not only translates floods or flash floods. The problems go much further because they break the predictability and constancy of water flows and that affects ecosystems, agriculture and in hydroelectric production. But what is urgent is what is urgent. And the urgent thing is to control the river beds. Something that, in the short term, is increasingly difficult. That is why we are in the middle of a situation of active hydrological surveillance that goes far beyond the Guadalquivir and the Guadiana. In the Ebrothe Arga, Aragón, Gállego (left bank) and the Tirón and Najerilla (right bank) are especially monitored. Inside Cataloniathe upper reaches of the Segre, Llobregat and Ter are monitored. Neither in Júcar nor in Turia active notices that transcend Cuencabut the entry of new fronts and the melting of ice can generate many problems downstream. Image | Water Alternatives In Xataka | After a succession of historic storms, the question is obvious: is Spain becoming a rainy country?

After a weekend of floods, deaths and evacuations, AEMET confirms that calm is coming for the New Year

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Málaga, Granada, Murcia and the south of the Valencian Community have passed a complicated weekend with floods, deaths and displaced people. In fact, in some areas of the southeast the worst has not happened yet. And people are tired: «”I feel like selling everything and leaving town: the rains are increasingly torrential”, said a neighbor from Cartama (Málaga). However, we will forget again. We will start the year cold, yes. But also with a strong anticyclone, with fog and frost. There will be no rain except somewhere in the south/east and the Balearic Islands; something that with the night movements of New Year’s Eve, is good news. However, the models start to draw that with the New Year there can also be a change in pattern. A change of pattern? Starting Thursday, as explained by Duncan Wingenthe models contemplate “the rise of the Atlantic ridge towards Iceland and Greenland”: it is what experts call the “Atlantic ridge.” It is a tongue of high pressure at altitude that bulges over the Atlantic and extends towards high latitudes. It is a wall that diverts the current from the west. What it represents for Spain. It’s hard to saythe truth. The effect on the peninsula depends on where the dorsal ends up placed. Or, close the Atlantic corridor and we have a few days of stable, dry and cold weather on the surface. Or, it favors the entry of cold from the north with thermal drops, a winter sensation and snow. Or, finally, the storm corridor opens with the consequent intrusion of Atlantic fronts from the Ocean. That is, rain and a slightly milder climate. What should we expect? It is a great unknown: enormous. And taking into account that it is the key phenomenon to understand what is going to happen in the coming weeks in southern Europe, it is important. Therefore, we have to continue monitoring them closely. Euro-Atlantic regimes modulate temperatures, energy demands and meteorological alerts. The Atlantic Crest is a piece of that puzzle and there are many things that depend on it. It is still surprising because, well, for now we are only going to see a deep, wintery cry. Image | PolarWx In Xataka | La Niña is going to be meteorologically “less intense” than we expected. And that actually hides a problem.

Levante’s floods point out that we are not prepared before an increasingly dangerous Atlantic

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Corted roads, trains delays, canceled flights rescue in three provinces. “The neighbors are panic“, said the mayor of Aldaia.” A few weeks after one year after the Dana tragedy, it seems that the phenomenon will be repeated, ” We could read In social networks. Gabrielle has been more than the remains of a hurricane, has been a reminder of all the pain of recent months and a promise: it will not be the last time. But are we prepared? A fact that seems curious, but it is something else. The 2025 hurricanes season has been very quiet, but something that has not happened for 90 years has happened. As Philip Klotzbach explainedwith “Humberto (…) the Atlantic would have a record of 3 of 3 hurricanes that became important in 2025 (Erin and Gabrielle were the others). The last time the first 3 hurricanes of a hurricane season in the Atlantic were important was in 1935”. But, in addition, none has touched earth (Gabrielle has already done it in the form of a postropical storm). That is, are the great Atlantic hurricane factory changing? Martín León has a good summary of the situation. The three cyclones “(1) have been formed from tropical waves of the east coming from Africa, (2) have moved through warm open waters, (3) have quickly intensified over very warm waters in the western Atlantic, (4) have recurred, or resort to the east to experience an extroatropical transition and (5) they will reach or reach the European coasts (transformed into the European coast postropical). It is true that it is early to draw conclusions. Until now (and despite the forecasts that it was going to be much stronger) “the 2025 hurricane station It is still close of the normal. “This was commented on by Martín León is curious, but is far from becoming a trend. And none of that changes the real problem. What problem? The current situation has taught us three things: the first one, a year ago, we were not prepared to support a blow like that of the Dana; The second, during this year, is that our institutional system does not seem capable of preparing quickly; And the third, these days, is that Valencia was not an isolated event, but a systemic risk in dozens of points of the country. Whether or not the change in tendency in the Atlantic, the situation is clear: climate change It exposes us to increasingly extreme meteorological phenomena. And our approach is the same as that of the last decades: nothing. But is this really new? Yes and no. As Emilio Rey explained to us“This type of phenomena has a period of recurrence of a certain time. Some occur every 20 years, another 50 or 100 years. But we know that it will happen again. It has always passed and will continue to happen in the future because our situation on the planet and the circumstances of this time of the year allow it. It will not pass every year but it will happen.” In any case, with climate change the frequency with which the strongest phenomena affects us will be modified. What the infrastructure of Castellón, TarragonaValencia or Saragossa There is much to do. Image | Via Stormyalert In Xataka | Google has demonstrated with its AI that the prediction of storms and hurricanes is outdated. This is how your new model works

While Andalusia and Extremadura fight against floods, the water system prepares for the next drought

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The rains of the last days They have put end to the pertinaz drought that still affected some Spanish basins. However, water so longed for in some areas has also flooded some areas of the country, especially in the south and west of the peninsula. Flooded areas. Numerous areas of the country have dawned under the threat of floods. The rainfall associated with Borrasca Laurence has made Cut roads and evict homes Faced with the risk of floods In Andalusia and Estremadura. Part of Murcia is now under orange warning decreed by the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet). It rains a lot. A determining factor in which we have reached this situation has been the persistence of these rains. Not only has it rained much, The three successive fronts that Laurence has brought the peninsula have put pressure on the water systems of the southwest, forcing water at various points. As if this were not enough, on the Atlantic Horizon A new storm appears: Martinho. This new storm is expected to reach the Peninsula tomorrow Wednesday. Not just rain. The risk of floods has also been exacerbated by spring thaw. In this sense, Aemet has also issued Several notices yellow by thaw in areas of the central system. To what extent the situation is “normal”. We are in spring, rainfall is not something anomalous on these dates, but Aemet’s forecasts For the remainder of the month of March they are clear: the next few days are also expected wetter than usual in much of the country (except for the Cantabrian mountain range and the island communities), and especially in the southwest quadrant. End of drought? We were therefore before the end of an important drought that affected practically the entire country between 2023 and 2024. A drought that still kept some basins such as the Catalans or those of the south, despite the intense rain episodes seen in the second half of 2024. Now, we see that the reservoirs have been maintained almost constantly with filling levels above average of the last 10 years during what we have been in 2025, and this month of rainfall seems aimed at accentuating this increase (compensating A drier February than usual). Everything seems to indicate that the drought situation has been reversed. The problem is now to prepare for the next. A paradox. This leads us to a paradoxical situation and is duty Plan a drought While we disembark water to avoid risks derived from the intense rainfall we are seeing these days (and that we will continue to see during the coming ones). On the one hand, because the increase in oceanic and atmospheric temperatures facilitate the accumulation of water in the atmosphere. More loaded clouds involve an increase in the risk of intense rainfall and with it the risk of flooding. On the other hand, the drought that we live seems to be more than one of the consequences of A aridification process which affects many areas of Spain. This process implies a trend that will make the most recurring droughts. In Xataka | With the reservoirs to be overflowed with the rains of March, there is a reason for hope on the horizon: the light of the light Image | ECMWF

Severe climate will cause rains with sudden floods in southern US

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He southern United States It is under threat of severe climate For a storm system that is expected to move from southern California to Texas on Wednesday, causing rain and possible sudden floods. Santa Barbara County recorded the greatest amount of rain, with 2.23 inches, earlier this week, while Los Angeles recorded 1.62 inches and Santa Monica 1.38 inches. The west storm will reappear in the states of the southern plains late on Wednesday afternoon and during the night, with Possible severe climate in the center and north of Texas, including Dallas. In addition, this storm system will bring very strong rains and threat of sudden floods from Texas to western Kentucky, including Dallas, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee and Paducah, Kentucky. At the local level, some areas could see more than 4 inches of rain, which will cause sudden floods on Thursday, said ABC News. Winds and snow to the northern US Several fast -movement storm systems combined with the lake effect will bring strong winds and snow to parts of the great lakes and the northeast from today to Thursday. Early Tuesday, a snowstorm storm warning was issued for Syracuse, New York, where visibility was falling almost zero in some places. At least five states were this morning under snow and wind alerts from the west to the northeast. The most intense snowfall and the strongest winds will occur from northern Michigan to west of Pennsylvania and New York and northern New Englandwhere 30 cm of snow with wind bursts close to 96 km/h are predicted locally. In some of these most intense snow bands, bleaching conditions may occur. Further south and east, in the I-95 corridor, it is possible that they fall between 2.5 and 2.5 cm of snow from the Hudson Valley in New York to Connecticut and Massachusetts. Boston and Hartford could see snowfall. Continue reading:• Winter storm causes historical snowfall in Panhandle in Florida• More than 2,000 flights canceled by historic snowstorm that plagues southern US• Winter storms whip the northeast delaying holiday trips (Tagstotranslate) Winter climate

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