Before-and-after pictures of Spain’s floods show parts of the country under water

CNN
—

The deadly floods that rocked Spain this week after intense, historic rainfall are so extensive and severe that the area looked like an inland sea from space.

A year’s worth of rain fell in a matter of hours in east-central Spain on Tuesday, creating a wave of flooding that breached river banks, turned streets into raging torrents and washed away cars and bridges.

At least 155 people were killed in the catastrophic floods – the type of extreme rainfall events that are becoming all too frequent as the world warms due to fossil fuel pollution.

Parts of the area now look like an extension of the Balearic Sea after unprecedented rainfall turned what should be dry land into a large body of water, satellite images taken on October 30 show.

Flooding appears as various shades of blue, covering what was dry ground (brown and green) earlier this month, the images show. The dramatic, widespread coverage of flooding over inland areas has almost turned coastal areas into islands.

Waterways it was hardly noticed in “before” satellite image from earlier this month – like the one cutting just south of Valencia’s city center – is now highlighted in light blue, indicating how elevated they are.

Dozens of people are still missing as of Thursday as rescue and recovery efforts continue.

The torrential rainfall produced this week was about 12% heavier and twice as likely to happen now compared to a pre-industrial climate before humans started burning fossil fuels, according to a quick analysis by World Weather Attribution. In Chiva, just west of Valencia, 19 inches of rain fell in an eight-hour period Tuesday, according to to the country’s meteorological agencyAEMET.

Rapid analysis is carried out in the immediate aftermath of extreme weather events by analyzing data and climate models to determine the role climate change played.

CNN Meteorologist Brandon Miller and CNN’s Laura Paddison contributed to this report.