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Although storms and tropical storms have swirled in the Atlantic Ocean and eastern Pacific, Europe has faced severe conditions of its own. An atmospheric depression that formed over the Mediterranean Sea in the middle of the week moved north-east into south-eastern European countries on Thursday afternoon, bringing broad rain showers, electrical storms and lengthy precipitation.

Persistent Rains and Critical Warnings

This weather pattern is predicted to persist into Friday, with forecasting tools suggesting two-day accumulations of 80 to 130 millimeters of rainfall across the majority of the Balkan states. Highest-level advisories were declared for Serbia, southwestern Romania, northeastern Greece, and the Dodecanese and North Aegean Islands, emphasizing the danger of inundation and threat to life. Strong winds also shut down classes on the island of Zakynthos in the Ionian archipelago.

Cold Air Intensifies Harshness

Chilly air masses pulled in from Eastern European regions worsened the severity, generating significant snowfalls across the Dinaric Alps, with some models forecasting depths of up to 80cm by the coming weekend.

Recent Inundation in Spanish Regions

Earlier in the week, Spain's eastern coast and the Balearics suffered devastating floods as the remains of Tropical Storm Gabrielle moved across the Spanish peninsula before coming to a halt over the nearby sea. The city of Valencia and the island of Ibiza were most impacted; Gandia registered 14 inches in 12 hours – more than 10 times its typical September rainfall, while the island had 254mm in a full day, its most precipitation in a day since at least the mid-20th century.

Streets, transit hubs, green spaces, and school buildings were compelled to shut down, while a rain gauge near Aldaia recorded 57 millimeters in just 35 minutes, causing the La Saleta waterway to burst its banks. The floods come just shy of a year after destructive inundations in Valencia in 2024 that killed more than 230 people.

Storm Bualoi Affects Vietnamese Regions

Typhoon Bualoi struck the coast across the central part of Vietnam this past week, delivering torrential rain, strong winds, and large swells. Over 300 millimeters of rainfall was observed within a 24-hour span on Monday morning, triggering sudden floods and rock slides that closed over 3,000 highways and stranded villages across northern provinces. Numerous air travel routes were cancelled or delayed, and railway services between the capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City were stopped.

Officials confirmed 36 lives lost and 147 casualties, with 21 individuals still unaccounted for. Hundreds of thousands of residences were harmed or submerged, with over 51,000 hectares of farmland destroyed. National officials has estimated that Bualoi has led to over $350 million in economic losses this recent period.