February is one of the driest months of the year in northern Colombia\u2019s C\u00f3rdoba department, a major farming and cattle region. It\u2019s the time of year when farmers normally prepare fields for planting and ranchers move livestock to graze in drying floodplains. In 2026, however, unusually heavy rains in early February upended seasonal rhythms and submerged much of the department under floodwaters.<\/p>\n
The OLI<\/a> (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9<\/a> captured this false-color<\/a> image (bands 7-5-4<\/a>) of flooding along the Sin\u00fa River on February 9, 2026 (right). Dark floodwaters cover farmland, pastureland, and several communities, particularly to the west of the river. To the east, water levels at a complex of wetlands are unseasonably high<\/a>. Lorica, a city of roughly 90,000 people, is visible in the upper part of the image. The OLI image on the left shows the same area on January 23, before floodwaters arrived.<\/p>\n After an already wet January<\/a>, rainfall intensified in early February when an unusual cold front in the Caribbean pushed south on February 1 and 2, forcing moisture-laden air into northern Colombia and over the Andes. This led to several days of intense downpours in C\u00f3rdoba, with some areas receiving more than 4 to 7 centimeters (2 to 3 inches) of rain per day, according to one analysis<\/a> of the event.<\/p>\n NASA’s IMERG<\/a> (Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement) estimated rain rates of 1.7 centimeters per hour<\/a> near Lorica on February 1, the day of the heaviest rains. In the following weeks, storms continued to drench the region. On February 25<\/a>, imagery from NASA’s Terra satellite<\/a> indicated that flooding remained widespread.<\/p>\n The floods have been far-reaching and destructive. More than 80 percent<\/a> of C\u00f3rdoba flooded, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Preliminary estimates cited by news<\/a> and government sources<\/a> suggest that thousands of homes were destroyed, more than 11,000 families displaced, and more than 150,000 hectares of farmland inundated.<\/p>\n NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the\u00a0<\/em>U.S. Geological Survey<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> Story by Adam Voiland. <\/em><\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/assets.science.nasa.gov\/dynamicimage\/assets\/science\/esd\/eo\/images\/iotd\/2026\/dry-season-floods-drench-northern-colombia\/colombiaflood_oli2_20260123_lrg.jpg?w=761&h=765&fit=clip&crop=faces%2Cfocalpoint\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/assets.science.nasa.gov\/dynamicimage\/assets\/science\/esd\/eo\/images\/iotd\/2026\/dry-season-floods-drench-northern-colombia\/colombiaflood_oli2_20260209_lrg.jpg?w=761&h=765&fit=clip&crop=faces%2Cfocalpoint\")
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