Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be the coldest December 24th and 25th on record across Spain since 2010, according to forecasts by Spain’s weather agency Aemet.
While December in Spain has generally seen above-average temperatures for most of the month, based on the 1991-2020 average, Aemet predicts that temperatures will fall below this average towards the end of the month, resulting in the coldest first week of Christmas since 2010.
Christmas Day will be particularly cold with temperatures falling to around -2C to -6C in inland and northern areas, while only southern Spain and the islands will have temperatures above 10C.
Rubén del Campo, spokesperson for the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), has forecasted a “cold Christmas Day with temperatures between 5 and 10 degrees below normal in large areas of the northern half of the country.”
In this regard, Spain’s main weather body points out a Christmas as cold as this year’s will become increasingly rare.
Advertisement
“The first week of Christmas is 2.1ºC warmer than it was in the mid-20th century. It’s not impossible, but it seems highly unlikely that we’ll experience Christmas as cold as in 1962,” the agency stated on its social media.
Wednesday (Christmas Eve) will be marked by cloudy skies and rain throughout much of Spain, especially persistent in Cantabria, Galicia, coastal Andalusia and the Balearics.
Light snow is expected in mountainous areas above 1,000 to 1,200 metres, along with persistent fog. In northern Spain, there could be snowfall at lower altitudes of 400 metres.
Provinces such as Burgos, León, Lugo, Granada and even Alicante have already had snow and it’s expected that more will be coming before the end of the year.
Christmas Day will see a clear drop in temperatures, initially pronounced in the north of the peninsula and then moving westwards, all due to the presence of a mass of cold air and a low to the west of the peninsula, Aemet has indicated.
A dozen mainland provincial capitals, including Madrid, will not exceed 5 degrees Celsius.
In Segovia and Lugo, the mercury will not go past 3 C.
Rain is expected, perhaps persistent, in the northeast and the Balearic Islands on Christmas Day. This rainfall will spread to other areas to the east and north of Spain throughout the day.
