The Government Delegation in Madrid has activated the red hydrological alert level on the Jarama River, in the section between Mejorada del Campo and San Fernando de Henares, due to the risk of flooding after heavy rains associated with storm Leonardo. The warning, the highest level on the emergency scale, comes in a particularly sensitive area, where in 2025 there were already very significant floods that inundated municipal facilities and forced the deployment of special protection measures.
According to the Tagus Hydrographic Confederation (CHT), the red level implies a “very dangerous hydrological situation,“ with a high probability of flooding in inhabited areas and road closures, requiring reinforced protection measures and extreme caution throughout the river basin. In the case of the Jarama, the latest real-time data show that in the Mejorada–San Fernando section, the river is close to 1.90 meters high and exceeds 80 cubic meters per second in flow, which are very high values for this point. The Government Delegation has explicitly requested that people avoid approaching the riverbed and limit unnecessary travel while the alert remains in place, in accordance with the Protocol for Communication and Hydrological Information Alerts in the event of flooding.
Urgent measures in San Fernando and Mejorada
Faced with the possibility of flooding, the Government Delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín, has traveled to the area of San Fernando de Henares, where a temporary barrier is being installed to protect the Municipal Sports Center, one of the facilities that was flooded in March last year when the Jarama River overflowed its banks.
The Madrid 112 Security and Emergency Agency is in constant contact with local councils in the area to assess the situation, prepare preventive measures, and coordinate any necessary action, from closing riverside roads to carrying out evacuations if the water level continues to rise.
The background to 2025: when the Jarama overflowed
The memory of what happened in 2025 explains the extreme caution of the authorities. At that time, a succession of storms brought heavy rainfall that triggered red alerts for flooding in numerous points of the Tagus and other river basins, with 25 gauging stations at red level and reservoirs forced to release water to maintain safety.
In the Jarama area, the river rose to over 2 meters in height and 400 cubic meters per second in flow as it passed through the Mejorada and San Fernando areas, causing flooding in sports facilities, roads, riverside farms, and sections of roads near the riverbed. The CHT reminds us that, with the reservoirs still in flow relief mode and more rainy fronts forecast by AEMET, any additional increase in rainfall could quickly push flows above safety thresholds.
In the context of a very rainy February, with saturated soils and reservoirs adjusting their levels, the red alert on the Jarama confirms that the downside of the much-needed rains is rapid flooding and the risk of inundation.