News: After the warm summer the showers come during the gota fría.

This weather phenomenon is regularly noticed along the Mediterranean coast of the mainland and the Balearic Islands where heavy rainfall is often accompanied by storms and high wind speeds.

Since the Mediterranean Sea this summer was warmer than normal, the chance of the "gota fría" is also greater. The popular term is also replaced by DANA but that does not sound so exciting

The term "gota fría" comes from the translation of the German word "Kaltlufttropfen", whose translation is roughly "falling cold air" while the "gota fría" literally means "cold drop". The weather phenomenon is accompanied by very heavy rainfall and storm, often with wind speeds between 100 and 200 km / h. The temperature also decreases due to the large amount of rain. A gota fría is normally short-lived.

Incidentally, the term "gota fría" has been replaced by the more scientific term DANA which is an abbreviation of Depresión Aislada and Niveles Altos. It is therefore quite normal to see the term DANA in the weather reports, but the "gota fría" is still spoken in the vernacular.

Cause

The cause of a DANA is in short, in the late summer or early autumn, the still warm moist Mediterranean Sea Air from the east on the already cooling Atlantic Ocean Air from the west. This summer the water of the Mediterranean was warmer than normal, so theoretically there would also be more chance of one or more "gotas frías".

However, a warmer Mediterranean does not automatically mean that more "gotas frías" will occur as there are many more requirements for the storm with heavy rain. For example, the sea air must be warm and humid, while there must be a cold air flow (usually between 5 and 9 kilometers high) that collides with the hot rising air, causing it to cool too quickly and the humidity coming down as rain.

Autumn

The "gota fría" always takes place after the summer months as a warm sea air is needed. The transition from summer to autumn is indeed the time of the year that the effects of the DANA are the most noticeable, but according to the weather experts a "gota fría" or DANA can also take place under the right circumstances during other seasons. In the winter and spring, however, the rain and storm of a DANA is not so noticeable while it is still climatologically proven that this is caused by a DANA or "gota fría".

Regions

The regions of Comunidad Valenciana, Murcia and Andalusia in particular are often affected by the effects of a "gota fría", but that certainly does not mean that Catalonia and the Balearic Islands can not deal with the effects of a DANA. The "gota fría" is sometimes even noticed in the middle of Spain but that is quite exceptional and difficult to prove. The term "gota fría" or DANA is also sometimes used incorrectly in the reports on storms, probably because it is recognizable.