This unusual and depressing weather forecast for the Amsterdam area of North Holland was found on the Buijenrader (cloud radar) website last weekend. Constant heavy rain started in October 2023 in this area. 12 months later it has proven to be a record-breaking wet year in Ireland, the UK and Western Europe, with no signs of the downpours stopping anytime soon! (For our American visitors 10 deg C is 50 deg F)
In April 2023, England was drenched after the wettest 18 months since records began in 1836. England has experienced its wettest 18 months since records began, leaving farmers struggling to plant crops in waterlogged fields and transport networks disrupted by flooding. The wet weather continued with September 2024 being the wettest month ever in the last 250 years, but it's not just a UK pattern.
In July 2024, Euro News reported that Germany had recorded its wettest year, with an increase of 35% in precipitation.
The first half of 2024 was the wettest ever recorded in the Netherlands, where I live. According to figures from Weeronline, a total of 570 millimetres of rain fell in the Netherlands in the six months from January to June 2024, way above the average of 362 millimetres, and significantly more than the previous record of 501 millimetres, which was set in 2016. Rainfall was especially high in April and May when new monthly records were set, and January and February.
But what happened in Spain in the last couple of months is not just unprecedented but also super-frightening when you consider the power, strength and destruction localised flooding can bring—It is not only awesome—But worryingly unstoppable and is a merciless killer and destroyer of infrastructure without compassion. In some areas of Spain, more than a year of rain fell in less than a day on the 29 of October 2024. 100s' died with many still missing. These unprecedented downfalls carried on well into November destroying hundreds of miles of Polly-tunnel and glasshouse farming in Spain which will affect Europe for the next year.
.jpg)
Credit NASA. An unusual weather pattern developed over Marocco and its neighbour Spain in late October 2024. The weather pattern, shown above on the NASA satellite shows a massive cloud system swirling anti-clockwise above the two countries, this system lasted for days and brought unprecedented flooding to parts of Spain.
Jump forward to this week . . . I received an email from my old friend from Florida, Hawkeye, who, as you may know, is still recovering from Hurricane Ian two years ago. She has also experienced five hurricanes in the last three months, three floods in six months, and several tornadoes. As you can imagine, she is at her wit's end. The email was about cloud seeding, below is a snip of the email:
What triggered the floods in Spain...? What's admitted in the news are some links I found through a simple Google Search saying cloud seeding is to blame for those torrential rains that caused these floods that Gary has posted here . The Japan Times and Morocco National News said it! Google 'Morocco cloud seeding' and read it for yourself! It says Spain is blaming Morocco for their recent flood event due to Morocco's cloud seeding, that the cloud seeding caused abnormal amounts of rain to fall.
Minister: 70 Cloud Seeding Operations Conducted in Morocco in 2024
How cloud seeding boosts rainfall — and why that’s controversial—Japan Times
Intrigued, I did some digging . . . I went back to NASA, this time the Earth Observation Site. I found a global rainfall graph for October, the month the catastrophic rainfall hit Spain—The results for November are not yet complete, but what I did find was astonishing, see below.
Morocco, North Africa is the tip of the Sahara Dessert, is not known for its rainfall, however, in October 2024 Morocco and Southern Spain recorded more rainfall than the Central and South American rainforest, which is incredible!
