Floods mapped in Spain: Where do weather warnings apply as death toll reaches 207?

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Weather warnings are in effect across much of Spain as more storms loom following devastating floods that have claimed at least 158 ​​lives – making it the country's worst natural disaster in living memory.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has warned that the devastation caused by flash floods is “not yet over” as he declared Valencia a “disaster area” on Thursday. He urged residents to stay in their homes, saying: “The most important thing at the moment is to protect as many lives as possible.”

Cities like Valencia and Malaga were flooded this week after nearly a year's worth of rain – almost half a meter – fell in some areas in just eight hours, leaving residents “like rats” in houses and cars, as one desperate local mayor described remembers the chaos.

As volunteers carry out a massive cleanup operation after floods washed away bridges and dumped cars and other debris in piles of mud on the streets, Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente said rescue workers were faced with the task of recovering bodies believed to still be dead trapped in vehicles .

But further extreme storms are forecast, leading to further weather warnings across large parts of the country on Thursday.

Calm weather returned to the worst-hit areas around the city of Valencia, but state weather agency AEMET issued the highest alert level for the province of Castellón, warning of “very strong storms” and urging people to avoid the area.

Further north in the Catalonia region, a yellow warning has been issued for the city of Tarragona, just 50 miles southwest of Barcelona.

Lower warnings of heavy rain were also issued along much of the country's western border with Spain, stretching from the southern coast to near Avila in the north.

These warnings of up to 60 mm of rain in 12 hours cover an area stretching about 240 kilometers from east to west, including the popular tourist destinations of Seville and Cadiz.

“This storm front is still with us,” Mr. Sanchez said Thursday. “Stay at home and follow the official advice and you will help save lives.”

As search and rescue efforts continued, the death toll from flooding continued to rise on Thursday, jumping from 95 to 158. Of those, 155 were reported in the Valencia region. Two deaths were reported in the neighboring Castile-La Mancha region and one in southern Andalusia.

Read our flooding live blog for the latest updates

The greatest pain has been concentrated in Paiporta, a municipality of around 25,000 people near the city of Valencia, where Mayor Maribel Albalat said Thursday that 62 people had died.

While communities near the city of Valencia suffered the most, the storms unleashed their violence across large parts of the southern and eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula.

Houses remained without water as far south-west of Malaga in Andalusia, where a high-speed train derailed on Tuesday evening. None of the almost 300 passengers were injured.

Greenhouses and farms across southern Spain were also destroyed by heavy rains and floods. The storms triggered an unusual tornado in Valencia and a hailstorm in Andalusia that left holes in cars.

The city of Chiva, west of Valencia province, recorded 491 mm of rain in just eight hours – more than in the last 20 months, according to the Spanish weather service.

Spain's Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the strongest flash flood event in recent memory. Scientists link it to climate change, which is also responsible for ever-higher temperatures and droughts in Spain, as well as warming of the Mediterranean.

Human-caused climate change has doubled the chances of a storm like the flooding in Valencia this week, according to a rapid partial analysis by World Weather Attribution involving dozens of international scientists studying the role of global warming in extreme weather.