Catalonia faces the worst phase of the storm: maximum warning for hail, gusts of more than 90 km/h and possible tornadoes

INUNCAT is the Special Emergency Plan for Floods in Catalonia, managed by the Civil Protection of the Generalitat. Its activation is based on the combination of meteorological forecasts (Meteocat), hydrological situation (Catalan Water Agency and basin organizations), and actual impact on the territory, and it is structured in different phases: pre-alert, alert, and, if necessary, emergency.

Who activates it and with what information

Activation corresponds to the General Directorate of Civil Protection of the Generalitat, through the Operational Coordination Center of Catalonia (CECAT). According to official documentation and notes, Meteocat issues warnings of risk due to intense rainfall (with hazard levels from 1 to 6) and the hydrographic confederations and the ACA provide data on river flows and possible rises in rivers and streams.

With these warnings, CECAT decides:

• Whether to activate INUNCAT and at which phase (pre-alert, alert, or emergency).
• Which resources to mobilize (Firefighters, Mossos, municipal services, etc.).
• Whether to issue instructions to the population, including, if applicable, mass ES-Alert alerts to mobile phones, which are also drafted and sent by CECAT when deemed necessary (not Meteocat).

Levels and activation criteria

The plan is structured in several phases that are activated according to meteorological and hydrological thresholds and possible impact:

1. Pre-alert

This is the monitoring and preparation phase. It is declared when there are warnings of significant rain but still uncertainty about the actual impact. For example, INUNCAT is placed in pre-alert when:

• Localized intense rains are expected, but without a generalization of the risk yet.
• Basin organizations warn of a possible increase in flow, but still within safety margins.

In this phase, river and flood-prone point monitoring is reinforced and municipalities and emergency services are informed preventively, but without major restrictions for the population.

2. Alert

This is the most frequent phase in practice, when the flood risk becomes high and probable. The notes from Civil Protection and coverage by Demócrata show it is activated in scenarios such as:

• Forecasts of rain intensities exceeding 20 l/m² in 30 minutes over wide areas of Catalonia.
• Episodes where the threshold of 40 l/m² in 30 minutes may be exceeded in some counties, considered already a high hazard level.
• Forecast accumulations of more than 100 l/m² in 24 hours in specific areas (for example, Baix Ebre or Montsià) or more than 60 l/m² in 3 hours in other areas.
• Situations where the combination of rain, river rises, and possible severe weather (hail, strong wind) anticipates significant incidents.

In this phase:

• The technical committee of the INUNCAT plan meets with all emergency bodies and basin organizations.
• Municipalities are notified and it is recommended to limit travel, avoid streams, ravines, and underpasses, and suspend certain outdoor activities in the most exposed areas.
• Exceptional measures may be adopted, such as suspending classes in specific counties or restricting mobility during critical hours, as has been done in recent episodes (Demócrata).

3. Emergency

The emergency phase is reserved for when floods already cause significant damage or direct danger to the population: major overflows, rescues, widespread infrastructure outages, evacuations, etc. In this context:

• CECAT coordinates the response with all operational services.
• Evacuations, confinements in high areas of buildings, or road closures may be ordered.
• If the risk justifies it, ES-Alert alerts are sent to the mobile phones of the affected population, with specific instructions.

Deactivation and return to normality

Once the rains subside and river flows progressively return to ordinary levels, Civil Protection deactivates the alert phase and keeps the plan in pre-alert until full normalization, as detailed in notes such as the one from 3/9/2025. Finally, when no relevant risks remain, INUNCAT is deactivated.

In summary, the activation of INUNCAT combines clear technical thresholds of rain and flows with an operational assessment by Civil Protection of the possible impact on people and property, grading the response from reinforced monitoring (pre-alert) to full management of a flood emergency.

The Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya (SMC) is established in regional regulations as the public reference service in meteorology and climatology in Catalonia. Its competencies are supported by the 2006 Statute of Autonomy, Law 15/2001 of November 14 on meteorology, and development regulations such as Decree 172/2002 (statutes, now not in force but relevant for defining functions) and Decree 255/2003 of October 8 on the transfer of facilities for avalanche prediction.

The Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, reformed by Organic Law 6/2006, recognizes the Generalitat's competence to establish its own meteorological service and expressly assigns it the provision of meteorological and climatic information, including forecasting, control and monitoring of risk situations, as well as research and the preparation of climatic cartography. On this basis, Law 15/2001 creates the SMC as a public law entity attached to the department responsible for the environment and assigns it operational functions.

a) Meteorological and climatic observation and prediction

Law 15/2001 structures the core competencies of the SMC around observation, prediction, and climate analysis in Catalonia. Its functions include:

• Managing and maintaining the Xarxa d’Equipaments Meteorològics de la Generalitat de Catalunya (XEMEC), which integrates the Generalitat's meteorological facilities and, through agreements, those of other public or private organizations.
• Processing, exploiting, and disseminating data obtained from these facilities and maintaining the Base de dades meteorològiques de Catalunya, which gathers series of variables and climatic data and is integrated and coordinated with the state data bank.
• Programming, implementing, and managing a system for prediction and monitoring of meteorological phenomena, as well as exploiting and disseminating forecasts for the Catalan territory.
• Participating in the preparation of climatic cartography of Catalonia and conducting studies to improve knowledge of climate and meteorology at the regional level.
• Promoting research activities in meteorology and climatology and fostering the development of meteorological products and services.

b) Support to civil protection and emergency management

Law 15/2001 articulates a key function of the SMC as part of the civil protection system:

• Forecasting, monitoring, and tracking meteorological risk situations, in coordination with the Centre d’Emergències de Catalunya (CECAT), ensuring a warning system for potentially affected users.
• Providing permanent official meteorological advice to administrations and entities responsible for civil protection when risk situations are foreseen.
• Assuming, following Decree 255/2003, the functions of avalanche risk prediction through the transfer of facilities, means, and contracts linked to the Avalanche Prediction Service of the Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya.
• Advising and assisting competent administrations in monitoring and predicting atmospheric pollution phenomena and episodes.

c) Information to the public and other administrations

The regulations configure meteorological information as a public service:

• The SMC must possess and supply information on meteorological variables, climatic data, forecasts, and monitoring of situation evolution.
• The Generalitat's bodies must request from the SMC the necessary information in emergencies, civil protection, territorial planning, urbanism, public works, agriculture, natural resource exploitation, and environment.
• The SMC supplies meteorological information to other public and private entities and organizations that request it for the exercise of their competencies.
• It organizes training and dissemination activities in meteorology aimed at the public and specialized sectors.

d) Coordination and external representation

Law 15/2001 and its developments foresee that the SMC:

• Establishes collaborations with the State meteorological authority and with other regional, state, European, or international institutions that perform meteorological functions, avoiding duplications and ensuring quality information.
• Coordinates the XEMEC with the state network of stations, for climate change studies, risk forecasting, and support to prediction, and to provide data to the international community according to the guidelines of the World Meteorological Organization.

e) Other relevant competencies

The regulations include other functions of interest:

• Studying and analyzing climate change in Catalonia, participating in research by scientific groups working on this subject.
• Analyzing and monitoring the ozone column over Catalonia and informing the population about its evolution.
• Developing meteorological services of an economic nature (public prices and fees for services), which allows the provision of commercial or specific services, especially to other public entities or private agents.
• Providing, once certified and designated the functions, meteorological support services for air navigation in the parts of airspace assigned to it.

Overall, the regional framework positions the Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya as an integral operator of observation and prediction, as an essential technical support for civil protection and public planning, and as a node of scientific and institutional coordination in meteorology and climatology within and outside Catalonia.

Data collected by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), Civil Protection, and the central Government itself show that, in recent years, practically all autonomous communities have recorded episodes of “violent weather” in a broad sense: torrential rains, very intense storms with hail, extreme winds, downbursts, DANAs, or sea storms. That is, the phenomenon is not exclusive to a specific region, although it does occur more frequently and intensely in some areas.

Based on official Interior notes on civil protection emergencies and recent meteorological analyses, several territorial blocks can be highlighted:

1. Mediterranean arc: Valencian Community, Murcia, Balearic Islands, Catalonia, and eastern Andalusia

This is the area that has recorded the most concentrations of extreme episodes:

• Valencian Community: repeatedly appears in declarations of severely affected areas by civil protection emergencies. The Ministry of the Interior records, for example, the August 2024 DANA, with heavy rains and storms that especially affected the Valencian coast, and the September–October 2025 floods linked to DANA Alice. Added to this are episodes of very violent warm and humid downbursts, such as the one in Cullera in 2022 or those documented in Valencia, Moixent, or Pego, with gusts near or exceeding 100 km/h and abrupt temperature changes recorded by AEMET and its SINOBAS system.
• Region of Murcia: appears among the communities most affected by torrential rains associated with DANAs and storms. Interior includes Murcia among the territories damaged by DANA Alice (October 2025) and by the chain of storms from late 2025 to early 2026, with episodes of floods and rapid rises.
• Balearic Islands: the August 2024 DANA forced activation of operational situation 2, with floods, evacuations, and road impacts, and the Military Emergency Unit intervened in Mallorca and Menorca. In 2025, episodes of very intense rains and floods repeated in Ibiza and Formentera.
• Catalonia: has activated its INUNCAT plan several times due to torrential rains and “violent weather” (large hail, gusts over 90 km/h, downbursts, waterspouts). Interior notes record recent episodes of high-intensity rains in various Catalan counties and severe coastal storms.
• Eastern Andalusia (especially Almería and the coast): is cited among the most affected areas by storm Emilia in December 2025, with torrential rains and AEMET red warnings, as well as in the Leonardo–Marta storm train of winter 2025‑2026, which caused floods, overflows, and strong winds.

2. South and southwest: western Andalusia and Extremadura

Beyond the Mediterranean, the southwestern peninsula has also suffered repeated episodes:

• Western Andalusia (Cádiz, Huelva, Seville, Córdoba) has been several times at orange level due to very intense rains, wind, or waves, with floods and river overflows in episodes such as storms Marta and Emilia. Civil protection emergencies include numerous forest fires favored by periods of extreme heat followed by storms.
• Extremadura appears as one of the communities with the highest agricultural indemnifications due to hailstorms, torrential rains, and winds in 2025, with more than one million hectares damaged across Spain and “unprecedented” records according to Agroseguro. Additionally, it is among the autonomous communities for which the Government has enabled extraordinary financing for storm damages.

3. North and northwest: Galicia, Cantabrian coast, and Navarra–La Rioja–Basque Country

The north also records frequent severe weather episodes, although with a greater weight of Atlantic storms of wind, rain, and sea:

• Galicia recurrently appears in declarations of areas affected by civil protection emergencies: wind storms and adverse coastal phenomena, river floods, and episodes of persistent rains, as well as fires associated with extreme heat waves.
• Asturias, Cantabria, and Basque Country are frequently affected by orange warnings for waves and very strong winds, and by storms with hail in spring and summer. AEMET has activated warnings for hail and very intense showers in eastern Cantabria, Navarra, and La Rioja, with risk of rapid rises and traffic problems.
• Navarra and La Rioja also appear in Interior notes for significant floods (for example, episodes in February 2024) and high-intensity storms, such as the one that severely affected Haro and other towns in La Rioja.

4. Plateau and interior: Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Madrid, and Aragón

The communities of the Plateau and the Ebro valley have experienced both Atlantic storms and severe convective episodes:

• Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha are among the autonomous communities with the most catastrophic episodes declared by the Government: floods, fires, and winter hardships linked to the chain of storms between late 2025 and early 2026.
• Community of Madrid appears in the lists of territories affected by rain, wind, and coastal phenomena storms (through AEMET's general warning system) during the same storm period.
• Aragón combines episodes of intense rains and Ebro floods with severe hail and wind storms that have caused significant agricultural damage, reflected in agricultural indemnity statistics.

5. Archipelagos and Canary Islands

Finally, Canary Islands and again Balearic Islands are very sensitive to wind and sea storms, as well as to episodes of intense rains associated with DANAs or Atlantic “atmospheric rivers.” Interior records, for example, several episodes of maritime pollution and coastal storms in Canary and Valencian ports linked to intense storms.

Overall, official sources and recent climate analyses agree that, between 2015 and 2025, there has been a clear intensification of these phenomena in almost all autonomous communities, both in frequency and severity, in a climate change context that favors more extreme rains, longer heat waves, more aggressive fires, and more damaging wind and hail episodes.