He extreme weather phenomenon called DANA (Isolated Depression at High Levels) impacted Valencia last October 29. It caused unprecedented destruction and left a balance of 223 dead. There are still 23 people who remain missing.
This event is also known as “cold drop” or “secreted discharge”. It is actually a fairly common phenomenon, but as it advances and develops, found the meteorological and geographical conditions to become something as extraordinary as it is lethal.
Experts from National Weather Service They were responsible for explaining that In Argentina a DANA can occur, but it does not necessarily mean that it will be of such an extreme level.
“It is a phenomenon that has always existed and It is common in all places in mid-latitudes, such as the central area of our country“, they clarify from the SMN. So, what varies is the impactwhich depends on many factors, from geography to the weather conditions themselves.
Background of DANA in Argentina
In fact, it is something that has already happened in the country, with the flood that affected the city of La Platathe capital of the province of Buenos Aires, and its surroundings in 2013. At that time, the event had its development between March 30 and April 5, 2013with a four-stage life cycle: initiation, segregation, mature and dissipation.
That moment records the greatest precipitation that occurred in La Plata, with a total accumulated of 392.2 mm of water, according to the La Plata Observatory, between April 2 and 3. The event caused deaths and great economic lossess.
The SMN estimates that said event It had an average duration of approximately seven days. This length is longer than the typical fall segregated low duration period in southern South America, which is five days.
However, the Argentine episode It was tragic but less lethal than in Valencia. The thing is that in the latter different issues came together that led to its fatality: climate change, poor urban planning, and the lack of coordination between control and prevention agencies.
This, added to the specific conditions of temperature and humidity, and the poor perception of those who had to make decisions. All this came together so that this DANA became one of the deadliest storms in recent history in Europe.
The word of the experts
SMN specialists stated that “These phenomena occur, they are not rarethey are usually assembled in the Peaceful or on the coast of Chili and, depending on their evolution, they may have a journey towards our area. We don’t hear about it because clearly It is very strange that it ends like in Valencia”.
For the organism, What happened in Spain “was a very extreme situation. We always try to have better evaluation systems, but They are not easy events to predict because their development depends on many factors. and its maximum potential impacts are very local, as happened in La Plata.”
As they indicate, “In South America, 17 DANA phenomena are recorded per year”. And not only that, but “the majority pass through Argentina due to the latitudes in which the country is located.”
They also confirm that Argentina is protected by some reliefs such as the mountain range: “The particularity in South America is the presence of the Andes mountain range. On the one hand, the mountain range helps some low-pressure systems at altitude to become trapped on the western side and end up separating from the normal circulation.”
“On the other hand, when the phenomenon is generated, It is difficult for him to pass the mountain range intactto. That’s why, weakens and can then regenerate further over the northeast or humid Pampa region. Thus you can form a cyclogenesis and it becomes a low pressure system on the surface,” they added.
Source: Ambito
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