Why is it raining less than half of what it used to rain in Barcelona?

The people of Barcelona look at the sky with a pinch in their chest and celebrate as if it were El Gordo when four drops fall.

Many even have the impression that it rains everywhere except here, when the harsh reality is that right now it does not rain in practically any part of the country, since a powerful blockade has been installed that has skyrocketed temperatures in the middle of winter and that It will last two weeks.

And the even harsher reality is that for three years it has not rained as much as it should in almost any part of Spain, which is suffering from a long-lasting drought that is especially punishing Catalonia, especially the provinces of Girona and Barcelona, ​​where it is already the worst in history by extension, duration and intensity.

This lack of rain has led to a distressing 16% of capacity in the region's internal basins, where a state of emergency will be declared on February 1.

More information

Catalonia prepares to declare drought emergency on February 1

“The first striking fact is that it rains more in Barcelona than in London,” contextualizes meteorologist Roberto Granda, from eltiempo.es.

“In the Catalan capital, 600 liters per square meter usually fall per year and in London, 550,” he explains.

“Within Catalonia, it is halfway.

The maximums occur in the Pyrenees of Lleida and Girona and the minimums occur in the Pla de Lleida,” says Ramón Pascual, delegate of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).

The annual average is 588 at the airport observatory and 621 at Fabra, at a higher altitude.

Is it a lot or a little?

It is “modest,” Pascual responds.

However, it surpasses the 371 in Madrid and the 539 in Seville, but they are far from the 1,134 in Bilbao.

“It is not comparable to the rainfall in other European cities or in the north of the Peninsula or in Catalonia itself, where there are points that exceed 1,400 liters.

But neither are they the 200 to 400 of Murcia, Alicante, Almería, Los Monegros and the interior of Castilla y León.”

The grass of the Barcelona Olympic ring completely dry, on January 5, 2024. Gianluca Battista

In Barcelona there is “the circumstance, very specific to the Mediterranean area, that the 600 are concentrated in a very small number of days.

Sometimes 100 have fallen in one day, something unheard of for Madrid,” says Pascual.

The drama is that we have been in a drought for three long years, in which the rain has been cut in half in many places.

Thus, at the Barcelona airport a generous 1,012.5 liters per square meter were accumulated due to Storm

Gloria.

in 2020, which went to just 334 in 2021, 331.8 in 2022 and a paltry 274.5 last year.

And at the Fabra observatory “the last three years have been the three driest since there are records, 1920,” Granda emphasizes.

In this first month of the year, 25 have been collected at the airfield.

“In Barcelona it has not rained, but neither in Vilafranca, nor in Igualada nor Granollers, there is nothing particular about the city, it is the general context of the northeast of the peninsula,” Pascual clarifies.

And this context is that the atmospheric situations of the Levant, which have always flowed from the border with France in the Cap de Creus to the Strait, have disappeared.

“From

Glory

They are almost absent.

There have been very few important ones, three or four, and not of that magnitude,” says the head of Aemet.

So far this season, 10 high-impact storms have been named, “but almost all of them, except

Aline

(which left 17 liters on average in the region) and

Juan

(12), have affected the western half, the Atlantic basins , north and Cantabrian, which has also favored the Aragonese Pyrenees, with the Ebro basin at 64%.”

In reality, “for it to rain in the Levant, there is no need for storms, it is enough for there to be instability and an eastern maritime flow loaded with humidity,” notes Granda.

“In recent years, we haven't had that favorable setup.

In southwestern situations some water may arrive, but little, since the front has to travel throughout the Peninsula and weakens, losing humidity and the capacity to generate rain, so, if a humid wind or a strong wind does not arrive from the sea, humid contribution that reinforces said front, the rains come to nothing.

The few Levante situations that have occurred have been concentrated in the southeast, which has had more rain than normal in the last two years.”

Determining the cause “is a high-level issue.”

“We would have to study what has happened to the general circulation of the atmosphere, because we are also suffering from an overabundance of blockage situations,” says Pascual.

“We do not have an answer to this question,” admits Granda, who also points out “the changes in the patterns and circulation of the jet streams.”

“We have debated the issue, but I have not heard or read anything conclusive,” adds the Aemet delegate, who recalls that everything that is happening fits with climate projections, which point to “a decrease in rainfall in the Mediterranean basin.” .

“It is a hot spot

for

global warming,” he emphasizes.

“It is difficult to think that we can return to the rainfall levels of the seventies,” he laments.

And not only has it rained less, it has been hotter, which “has increased evapotranspiration and it is even more noticeable in water reserves,” adds Granda.

What may happen is a blank page.

“The forecasts for February and March do not give a clear signal, we do not know if it will rain above or below normal, but in the northwest quadrant somewhat higher rainfall is expected again, which makes you think that we will probably continue with the same trend for the Mediterranean side,” explains Pascual.

In any case, this cannot be fixed with a storm or two.

“In order for the aquifers to be recharged and the land to be moistened to the lower layers, truly generous and persistent rains are needed,” concludes Granda, for whom the only way out is adaptation.

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