Spain records rainiest October ever, culminating in deadly floods

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain has registered the rainiest October on record, culminating in the most deadly floods in decades in the country, the national weather agency AEMET said on Friday.

More than 220 people died after torrential rains on Oct. 29 caused flash floods that surged through suburbs south of the city of Valencia, in eastern Spain, sweeping away cars and bridges and flooding properties and underground car parks.

Seventy-eight people are missing, although the government believes some of them could match some of the 48 bodies still to be identified.

Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Meteorologists believe the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe.

Peninsular Spain had an average of 147 millimetres (mm) of rain this October, almost twice the average amount in a normal October, AEMET added.

Turis, a town 15 km (about 9 miles) upstream from Valencia city where a year's worth of rain fell in a day, broke the national record of rainfall in an hour with 184.6 mm falling.

With 771 mm of rain in 24 hours, Turis was also close to breaking the record registered in 1987 in nearby Oliva of 817 mm.

AEMET said October was a warm month overall, with an average temperature over peninsular Spain of 15.5 ° Celsius (59.9° F), 0.9 °C above average.

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro and Ros Russell)