'DANA' storm batters Spain with torrential rain, to continue Monday

Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Spain on Sunday is on high alert for bad weather from a "DANA" storm, which is predicted to continue producing record-breaking torrential rains well into Monday.

The slow-moving storm, dubbed a "Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos," or DANA, arrived over the weekend and is dropping more than 2 inches of rain per hour over much of western Spain as residents seek shelter.

The country's civil protection service has called on the 9,600 residents of Alcanar to move to higher ground, El Pais reports.

Andalusia, Castilla y León, Catalonia and Valencia are in an orange alert, the highest level warning for weather in Spain's three-tiered alert system. The storm is the most intense the country has experienced this year.

Madrid is under a red notice, the second most severe alert, as of Sunday, according to its emergency management service.

"Emergency and security services have been reinforced and measures to deal with the DANA have been activated since Friday," José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid, tweeted Sunday. "Due to the exceptional and anomalous situation, in which the rainfall record will be broken, I ask the people of Madrid to stay at home today. Caution."

In Toledo, about 36 miles from Madrid, mayor Carlos Velazquez echoes the warning from Martinez-Almeida as he asks for residents to exercise maximum caution. Velazquez shared images of the flooding on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday.

Further south, the city of Malaga was under a yellow alert early Sunday as it braced for heavy rain, SUR in English reports. Chances of rain are expected to dwindle later in the day.