Alicante sits on Spain’s Mediterranean coast (or nearby islands), where hot, dry summers give way to the year’s most dangerous weather in autumn, when warm sea-surface temperatures fuel intense, slow-moving storms known locally as gota fria or DANA (an isolated depression at high altitude).
On Spain’s Costa Blanca, the city sits in one of the areas most frequently hit by DANA storms, including a severe 1997 flash flood. These autumn storms can drop several months’ worth of rain in a single day, as seen repeatedly across eastern and southern Spain in recent decades, which is why radar imagery is central to how Spain’s AEMET meteorological agency issues flash-flood warnings. Learn more: Flash Flood Warning Signs on Radar · Open the full Rain Map