Across Europe, a conveyor belt of Atlantic storms is dumping so much water that landscapes and infrastructure are struggling to cope. From the Iberian Peninsula to the British Isles and the eastern Mediterranean, saturated ground and swollen rivers are turning routine rain into dangerous floods, a pattern that is starting to look less like a freak season and more like a structural shift in the continent’s climate. I see a continent where the soil itself appears to have reached its limit, unable to absorb the relentless downpours that keep arriving.
The current barrage is being driven by a series of named systems, including Storm Leonardo, Storm Marta, Storm Goretti and Storm Chandra, that have lined up over the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. Their combined impact is exposing how vulnerable Europe’s farms, towns and transport networks are when extreme rainfall stops being occasional and starts becoming the background rhythm of winter.
From Iberian deluge to Mediterranean flash floods
The most dramatic scenes have unfolded on the Iberian Peninsula, where Storm Leonardo has pounded Andalusia and large parts of Portugal. Reporting on Storm Leonardo describes deadly torrential rain across the Iberian Peninsula, with flood warnings stretching from coastal cities to inland valleys as rivers burst their banks and emergency services scramble to reach isolated communities, a pattern that has turned what would once be a winter storm into a national crisis for both countries. Analysts tracking Storm Leonardo have highlighted how its slow movement and repeated rain bands have amplified the flooding threat.
Satellite and ground observations show Storm Leonardo continuing to batter Europe and parts of northern Africa, with Spain and Portugal singled out for particularly intense rainfall and ongoing search operations in inundated districts. In Video footage from the region, rising rivers and deadly floods are seen slamming Portugal, with torrents of brown water racing through towns as Storm Leonardo’s rain bands pass overhead.
Authorities in Portugal have responded by extending a state of emergency in areas hit hardest by Storm Leonardo, a move that unlocks extra resources for rescue and recovery and underscores how far beyond normal winter conditions this event has gone. Aerials from the same reporting show floodwaters spread across low-lying districts, with roads and fields submerged in muddy water as officials warn that the recovery process will be prolonged.
Soils at breaking point from Ireland to Greece
What makes this season so dangerous is not just the intensity of individual storms but the way they are arriving in rapid succession, leaving soils little time to drain. In western Europe, Storm Goretti was identified as Europe’s first named storm of 2026, with Storm Goretti sweeping across Western and Central regions after being named by meteorologists in France. The system triggered warnings as it moved east across Western and Central parts of the continent, priming rivers and hillsides for further trouble once Leonardo and Marta arrived.
In Ireland, forecasters have been warning that already wet ground is sharply increasing flood risk. A low pressure system named Storm Chandra by the Met Office brought strong winds and heavy rain to eastern and southern counties, with the system expected to affect the country between January 26 and January 27. Meteorologists then issued an Updated commentary for early February, warning that Today and tomorrow a spell of rain would affect the country, heaviest in the southeast and east, while also restricting river discharge because of high tides.
Those same dynamics are visible across the UK, where national forecasters say it has already been a record breakingly wet start to 2026 for some regions. Analysis of the current pattern notes that February is continuing where January left off, with repeated spells of heavy rain and some areas seeing more than 50mm across higher ground, a level of saturation that leaves little buffer when the next storm arrives, as described in detailed It has reporting. The result is a landscape where even modest additional rainfall can trigger surface flooding, landslides and transport disruption.
Further south and east, the same story is playing out in the Mediterranean basin. In Greece, a bulletin from national and European agencies describes Severe weather and flood conditions, with the Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS) and the European Commission’s humanitarian arm ECHO detailing heavy rain, overflowing rivers and local evacuations in a Daily Flash of severe local storm language. The repeated reference to “severe” in official updates underlines how far conditions have drifted from seasonal norms.
Farms, towns and a new era of ‘weather whiplash’
For farmers, the succession of storms is not just a meteorological story but an economic shock. In Spain and Portugal, Farmers have reported catastrophic damage to crops as Storm Marta hits Spain and Portugal, describing fields left waterlogged and harvests at risk. One grower, identified as Perez, said the storm had caused millions of euros of damage to this year’s crop and that farmers would seek government help to recover, while waterlogging has also raised fears about disease and longer term soil degradation.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
