Dry-season floods in northern Colombia aren’t supposed to be part of February’s routine, but in 2026 they rewrote the playbook for Córdoba. Instead of farmers prepping fields and ranchers shifting cattle toward drying floodplains, fast-rising water swallowed pastures, roads, and neighborhoods. The surprise wasn’t just the flooding—it was the timing, when the region is typically near its annual rainfall low.
That sudden reversal turned everyday decisions into urgent ones: where to move livestock, how to protect seed and equipment, and which routes still connect communities. Understanding what drove the deluge can help residents, planners, and producers prepare for the next “off-season” disaster.
Dry-Season Floods in Northern Colombia: Why February 2026 Was Different
February is usually among the driest months in Córdoba, a major agricultural and cattle region along the Sinú River. In early February 2026, however, rainfall ramped up after an already wet January, pushing rivers and wetlands beyond normal limits.
Next came a key trigger: an unusual cold front in the Caribbean on February 1–2. As it pushed south, it helped funnel moisture-laden air into northern Colombia and up toward the Andes, setting the stage for multiple days of intense downpours.
Sinú River Flooding Near Lorica: What Satellites Revealed
Satellite observations offered a clear view of how quickly conditions changed. Landsat 9’s Operational Land Imager captured false-color imagery that highlighted dark floodwaters spreading across farmland, pastureland, and communities—especially west of the Sinú River.
Meanwhile, wetlands east of the river showed unseasonably high water levels. Lorica, a city of roughly 90,000 people, sat close to the impacts, underscoring how river flooding can jump from rural floodplains to urban disruption in a matter of days.
Extreme Rainfall Rates and Ongoing Storms Across Córdoba
Rainfall intensity helped explain the rapid inundation. NASA’s IMERG precipitation estimates indicated peak rates near Lorica around 1.7 centimeters per hour on February 1, with some locations seeing roughly 4–7 centimeters (2–3 inches) per day during the worst period.
Even after the heaviest burst, storms kept returning. In the following weeks, imagery from NASA’s Terra satellite showed flooding remained widespread, prolonging damage and delaying recovery work across low-lying areas.
Humanitarian Impacts: Displacement, Farmland Inundation, and Recovery Steps
The flood footprint was massive: reports indicated more than 80 percent of Córdoba was affected, with thousands of homes destroyed, over 11,000 families displaced, and about 150,000 hectares of farmland inundated. For a region anchored in crops and cattle, that scale threatens both livelihoods and food supply chains.
As a practical next step, communities can pair local river gauges and warnings with satellite-based rainfall and flood mapping, then pre-plan livestock evacuation routes and temporary storage for seed and equipment. When dry-season flooding becomes possible, readiness has to be seasonal—and data-driven—rather than tied to the calendar.