Flash flooding has hit regions of Spain in recent weeks with Barcelona being out on the highest alert just days after severe flooding left more than 200 dead in Valencia.
Barcelona’s airport has flooded and flights have been cancelled, with people told not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary.
Meanwhile, hundreds in the Valencia region are still missing. The search is continuing for bodies feared to be stuck in cars, houses and in shopping precincts.
A British couple are among the dead – Don and Terry Turner were discovered in a sparsely populated area where they lived near the small town of Pedralba.
But why has the country been hit so hard?
What has caused the flash floods in Spain?
Weather experts say a combination of factors have combined to create the freak weather.
Scientists believe climate change is partly to blame as warmer air holds and then dumps more rain.
They have also said there may have been changes in the world’s “jet stream”. This is a river of air above land that moves the weather system around the world and could have affected the extreme flooding. Experts believe a “lower pressure storm system” came from a stalled jet system which remained stuck over the region.
Weather experts also say the sea was unusually hot this year.
Carola Koenig, of the Centre for Flood Risk and Resilience at Brunel University of London, said the Mediterranean had the warmest surface temperature on record in August, which would have had an impact.
She said: “Unquestionably, climate change is the key contributing factor in these extreme rain events. The Mediterranean has seen the warmest surface water temperature on record with a mean temperature of 28.47°C in mid-August.
“This facilitates a greater uptake of moisture in the air, resulting in more rain when the atmosphere starts to cool in the autumn. As things stand, Spain needs to embrace itself for continued heavy rain for the next few days.”
The flash flooding came after droughts in the country just last year. Experts say that drought and flood cycles are increasing with climate change.
Which areas have been hit?
Chiva in Valencia was hit particularly badly. Waterfall records show that during a period of just eight hours, it rained more than it had in the preceding 20 months.
The storms concentrated over the Magro and Turia river basins in Eastern Valencia. Authorities have recovered 217 bodies, with 213 of them from this region.
More rain is forecast for the disaster zone as well, as further up the Mediterranean coast part of the Catalonia region around the city of Tarragona is under red alert.
Palma in Majorca and Barcelona are the other areas to have been hit so far, although not as bad as Valencia so far.
Why have there been so many deaths?
When the flash floods hit, walls of water overflowed riverbanks and caught people unaware.
The country has a emergency messaging system, but when these warning messages were sent out in Valencia urging locals to stay home, many were already out. This led to death traps in places that were low lying, such as tunnels and underground parking garages. It has been claimed messages were sent out too late.
The Valencia regional government sent out the warnings at 8pm on Tuesday, when the heavy flooding had already started in some places and well after the national weather agency issued a red alert indicating heavy rain.
Paiporta has been billed as the ground zero of the October 2024 floods affecting the province of Valencia.
Spain’s royals and the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, visited the area after the disaster.
There has been anger in the area at a perceived lack of warning and what they say has been insufficient support from authorities in the aftermath.
Enraged crowds hurled abuse, and even tried to throw mud, at the officials.
Protesters shouted "murderer" at King Felipe VI, and Mr Sánchez, leading to the group having to be evacuated as the crowd grew hostile.
