Rainfall/Precipitation in Spain

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Rain in Spain

Great swathes of Spain receives an average of around 600 mm precipitation a year. The average altitude of the country is 660m. The combination of the two as a constraint to agriculture led the Spansih writer Miguel de Unamuno to remark on the “problema de los 600”, dreaming of a land which lay below this height and received more rainfall, for here he believed, somewhat simplistically, lay many of its problems.

Almeria is, in all probability, the most arid region in Europe. The Cabo de Gata area, Europes only semi-desert, receives barely 125-150 mm of rain a year.
Average yearly rainfall varies hugely. Two extremes: 1,955.2mm in 1855, and just 355.8mm in 1981, with an average variation of 20% from one year to the next, excepting the wet Cantabrian Strip. This rises to as much as 40% in places like the Mar Menor in Murcia. Consequently, longer periods are required to come up with a reliable area average (typically 40 rather than 30 years).
Average precipitation in Spain as a whole (a meaningless figure, all the same) is 650mm. In ‘wet’ Spain as a whole this rises to around 1,000 mm. Semi-arid 300 mm.
In Mediterranean Spain, rainfall tends to be concentrated in just a few days, and within this sometimes within a few hours. Figures of 100mm are common, and figures of 250 not exceptional. The absolute record is a remarkable 878mm in Xàvia in 1957 (reference - thanks to Huw Griffith for pointing this out), followed 30 years later by 817mm in Oliva (Valencia) on 3 November 1987, followed by 600mm in Albuñol (Granada) on 19 October 1973 and 426mm in Cofrentes (also Valencia) on 20 October 1987. Another example: 119mm fell in one hour on 1 July 2003 in the village of Manuel in Valencia.
Interannual precipitation (rainfall, snow, hail, etc) varies hugely. In 1996 it rained twice as much or more as in 1990 in most catchment areas. So beware of making predictions on climate change solely because it hasn’t rained much in a given year.
Oddly, one of the wettest villages in Spain is not on the Atlantic coast but in Andalucia. Grazalema in the Sierra de Grazalema has an average of 2,153 mm of rain a year. The warm, humid winds blow in from the Atlantic and cool and condense as they pass over these limestone peaks. The wettest points are certainly on the Galician -Portuguese border and parts of Northern Navarra.

Average precipitation for Spain as a whole 1930-1996

Month	Monthly total in mm.
October	68.6
November	72.1
December	74.4
January	65.7
February	58.4
March	56.7
April	56.7
May	56.1
June	39.0
July	19.6
August	25.8
September	46.3
Total	639.5 mm