Dry season turned flood season: Córdoba underwater in early February 2026.
The north of Colombia’s Córdoba department usually enters February expecting more stable weather. In that part of the country, on Colombia’s Caribbean fringe, February is typically counted among the driest months of the year: farmers prepare plots for sowing, and ranchers move herds toward drying floodplains and riverside pastures. This year, that rhythm was abruptly broken. After an already wet January, the first days of February 2026 brought unusually heavy rainfall that raised water levels, breached banks, and turned fields, pastures, and villages into a single expanse of water.
Flooding in Córdoba was not a short-lived incident of “two days of rain.” According to satellite imagery and field reports, the water lingered for weeks, and in some zones the flood wave moved from municipality to municipality, following the river network, canals, and wetlands. At the center of the story was the Sinú River—crucial for irrigation and the region’s economic life, and also key to understanding why a flood in the dry season can develop faster than local protection systems can withstand.
What satellites show: Sinú, Lorica, and flooded fields
NASA’s Earth Observatory published an analysis of the event on 26 February 2026, based on Landsat 9 data, a satellite that—through a partnership between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)—continuously images land surfaces. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) recorded a false-color image on 9 February 2026 (a 7-5-4 band combination) in which the dark floodwaters clearly stand out from vegetation and soil. Compared with the image from 23 January, when most land along the Sinú looked dry, the February view shows water covering large areas of cropland and pasture and entering populated areas, especially west of the river channel. East of the river, a complex of marshes and wet habitats shows unusually high water levels, indicating overflow and water being retained in natural depressions.
The images also show Lorica, a city of roughly 90,000 residents, located in a zone where river dynamics and urbanization often meet at the most sensitive point: where rainfall runoff, river stage, and local drainage “converge” in a short time. The satellite view is therefore not only a dramatic picture; it is technical evidence of the flood’s extent, useful for estimating affected areas, planning assistance, and confirming field reports from remote rural communities that are often cut off.
Meteorological trigger: a cold front from the Caribbean and days of extreme rain
According to NASA’s event overview, rainfall intensified on 1 and 2 February when an unusual cold front over the Caribbean moved south and “pushed” moisture-saturated air toward northern Colombia and the Andes. Such a setup increases moisture influx and encourages the development of intense convective systems, while the Andes’ orography further enhances uplift and precipitation processes. In parts of Córdoba, multi-day heavy rains were recorded, with estimates that locally more than 4 to 7 centimeters of rain fell per day. NASA’s IMERG system, which merges measurements from multiple satellites within the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, estimated that around Lorica on 1 February—on the day of the heaviest rainfall—precipitation intensity reached about 1.7 centimeters per hour.
Analysts from the ClimaMeter platform, which conducts rapid scientific assessments of extreme events, describe the period from 1 to 3 February as an episode of “exceptional meteorological conditions” in multiple Caribbean departments of Colombia, including Córdoba. Their assessment points to enhanced moisture transport from the Caribbean Sea and an unusually persistent configuration that favored longer-lasting rainfall. At the same time, they stress that natural variability alone can hardly explain the observed increase in precipitation amounts and that it was likely an event unfolding in a warmer and more humid atmosphere, which can increase rainfall “efficiency” under similar synoptic conditions. Such attributions require caution in interpretation, but in this case scientists explicitly highlight a signal of strengthening rainfall in the contemporary climate period compared with historical analogs.
Scale of the crisis: the figures change, but the trend is clear
In the first days of February, when many municipalities were only beginning to enter a state of emergency, Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) publicly spoke of a humanitarian operation aimed at at least 13,000 families in 17 municipalities, emphasizing damage to households, crops, livestock, and local infrastructure. As water levels continued to persist, the figures were quickly revised. Córdoba Governor Erasmo Zuleta, according to reports by multiple media outlets, said on 9 February that more than 120,000 people were affected, and within a short time the estimate rose to around 140,000, with the claim that 24 of 30 municipalities and approximately 80 percent of the department’s territory were affected.
In parallel with field assessments, UNGRD began systematic mapping of flooded areas using international Earth observation services. According to official statements, UNGRD activated the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters mechanism and the European Copernicus Emergency Management Service mapping. Based on satellite products of different resolutions, with a snapshot as of 9 February, it was estimated that the Caribbean region overall had about 236,442 hectares affected, while in Córdoba itself approximately 113,641 hectares were identified as impacted by flooding. In the same period, UNGRD director Carlos Carrillo said in interviews that in Córdoba this was a crisis event outside typical scenarios: he mentioned more than 150,000 hectares of affected areas, of which about 40,000 hectares were “underwater,” along with the information that rainfall in the Urrá hydropower reservoir accumulation zone reached values that exceeded usual monthly averages multiple times over.
Such differences in figures do not mean someone “made a mistake,” but that estimates are made at different times and on different bases: some refer to residents and families affected by the loss of homes, property, or income, while others refer to areas under water or agricultural damage. But the common denominator is clear: the flood developed at a level that is not normally expected in the dry season, and its economic удар hits precisely the sectors on which Córdoba relies—livestock and agriculture.
Agriculture and livestock hit hard: from pastures to shelters
In the Colombian context, Córdoba is often described as a region of “food and cattle,” with a mosaic of smaller farms, larger ranches, and supporting logistics that connect rural areas with urban centers such as Montería and Lorica. When water enters fields at the moment of soil preparation and spreads onto pastures, the damage is not only immediate. Flooded crops in practice mean lost investments in seed, fertilizer, and labor, and delays in the next planting cycle because the soil must dry and sometimes be rehabilitated. On the livestock side, flooding forces owners to move herds to higher ground; where that is not possible, the risk of deaths, disease, and loss of feed increases.
UNGRD’s official statements also include a dimension that often remains in the background: animal welfare and protection. On 17 February, UNGRD reported the arrival of 14 tons of food and veterinary supplies for pets, production animals, and wildlife, with a preliminary estimate that more than 6,000 animals were affected by the flood. The aid, according to the statements, was delivered to a collection center in Montería and was to be distributed according to priorities reported by municipalities. Such details further show how multi-layered the crisis is: families who have lost their homes often simultaneously try to save their only source of income—cattle, poultry, or equipment—and the institutional response must cover both the humanitarian and the economic components.
Urrá, levees, and the long-running debate on water management
Floods along the Sinú also reopened a politically sensitive topic: the role of hydropower and water systems in the region. In public discussion, the Urrá hydropower plant is especially mentioned, whose reservoir system is upstream of the affected areas. In one of its early statements about an “atypical cold front,” UNGRD said that the Urrá I reservoir level exceeded historical values and reached about 102 percent of capacity, which further increased pressure on operational decisions about water releases and contingency plans. At the same time, UNGRD’s director warned in media appearances that in a moment of crisis the focus should be on rescuing and sheltering people, not on political debates about the history of large infrastructure projects.
On the other hand, messages from local and national political circles said that alongside extreme rainfall it is necessary to raise the question of how protective levees, canals, “jarillones,” and other interventions that change the natural dynamics of rivers and wetlands were planned and maintained. In practice, such interventions can protect one zone while increasing risk in another, especially when the flood wave exceeds design scenarios. In Córdoba, this revives a long-standing question of prevention: how much has been invested in regulation, drainage, and the preservation of natural retention areas, and how much has relied on ad hoc measures once water is already inside homes. Colombia’s Defensoría del Pueblo, in its statement from Montería in mid-February, emphasized that risk management must be treated as a development strategy and a matter of rights protection, because the poorest communities are often forced to live in zones that are naturally exposed to flooding.
Emergency state measures: faster decisions by decree
As damages grew, the crisis also gained an institutional framework at the national level. The Presidency of Colombia published Decree 0150 of 11 February 2026, declaring a state of emergency—economic, social, and ecological—for a period of 30 days in eight departments: Córdoba, Antioquia, La Guajira, Sucre, Bolívar, Cesar, Magdalena, and Chocó. Such a regime enables the executive branch to adopt extraordinary measures and reallocate resources faster than in the regular legislative process, with subsequent controls предусмотрene by Colombia’s constitutional framework. In later statements, the Presidency said the measures are tied to repairing consequences and accelerating aid, emphasizing coordination among the sectors affected—from infrastructure to agriculture.
For Córdoba’s residents, such decisions make sense only if they are “translated” into tangible interventions: safe temporary shelters, restoration of local roads and bridges, drinking-water supply, health protection, and a realistic plan for economic recovery. An additional challenge is that, according to meteorological service assessments and warnings from institutions, the risk does not end in the first half of February: even if rainfall temporarily decreases, water recedes slowly, and new rain falls on already saturated and flooded areas.
What comes next: the flood as a test of resilience, not only emergency aid
NASA’s analyses note that on 25 February, according to Terra satellite images, flooding was still widespread, confirming how long-lasting the event was. Under such circumstances, recovery is measured not only in days but in months: agricultural production must be restored, livestock returned, and homes and schools made usable without health risks associated with dampness and contaminated water. At the same time, the experience of a “dry-season flood” in February 2026 opens a broader debate about adaptation to extreme events. If episodes of unusually heavy rain continue to appear in periods that have traditionally been dry, then production planning, flood-protection design, and early-warning systems will have to be adapted to a new reality.
In this crisis, satellites showed their practical value: from Landsat 9 visually documenting the spread of water along the Sinú to international systems helping UNGRD map the flood “patch” and guide field teams. But in the end, the key remains on the ground—whether emergency aid will turn into recovery, and recovery into preventive policy that reduces risk before the next “atypical” front once again turns the dry season into disaster.
Sources:- NASA Earth Observatory – Landsat 9 (OLI) satellite images and event description ( link )- UNGRD – satellite mapping of flooded areas (236,442 ha in the Caribbean region; 113,641 ha in Córdoba) ( link )- UNGRD – overview of the response to the atypical cold front and data on incidents and Urrá I reservoir levels ( link )- UNGRD – aid logistics for animals affected by flooding in Córdoba ( link )- Presidency of Colombia – Decree 0150 of 11 February 2026 declaring a state of emergency in eight departments (PDF) ( link )- Presidency of Colombia – Government measures linked to Decree 150/2026 ( link )- EL PAÍS (América Colombia) – reports on the number of affected people and political reactions in Córdoba ( link ; link )- Caracol Radio – initial report on aid distribution and the list of affected municipalities ( link )- ClimaMeter – scientific assessment of the 1–3 February 2026 event and analysis of climate-change contribution ( link )- Defensoría del Pueblo (Colombia) – warning about the need to strengthen risk management and protect rights ( link )
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