Will it rain in the south of Spain in February?

State weather agency Aemet has offered its forecast for the month and highlighted the transition to winters "without long persistent storms" over the last decade

Europa Press

Sevilla

Tuesday, 30 January 2024, 09:50 | Updated 10:22h.

Spain's state weather agency (Aemet) is forecasting a "poor" February in terms of rainfall in Andalucía to tackle the drought crisis. The forecaster also noted a change in the rainfall pattern in the region during the winter in the last decade, where there are no longer "long persistent storms" that allowed "a whole week" of rain that led to runoff to improve the levels of the reservoirs.

This was stated by the regional delegate of Aemet in Andalucía, Juan de Dios del Pino, who said that if it rains in the first fortnight in February it will be "little" and in the second fortnight it will rain more but not "above average" according to current forecasts.

In an interview on Canal Sur television, Del Pino indicated that Andalucía will have a "poor February in terms of rainfall or at least will not give an accumulated rainfall that will allow us to get out of the drought situation", while he warned that the forecasts for March "are uncertain and still not very accurate".

In any case, the Aemet regional delegate warned that the key to tackling the drought is not "just the quantity, but the way in which it rains" and gave as an example the rainfall recorded this January with a "sequence of two storms, first with Irene wetting the ground a little and then Juan arrived, and as the ground was wet, some of the water did run off and reached the reservoirs".

"If all the rain that fell in January had gone to the reservoirs, we would have had 30% more and our reservoirs would contain half of their capacity", added Del Pino. He also warned that "it has never happened" that we have had a period of 30 consecutive days of rain with an average of ten litres per day - which is what the president of the Junta, Juanma Moreno, said would be needed to avoid water restrictions in the summer in cities and large towns.

In Del Pino's opinion, "the problem is not only that it is raining less, but how it is raining, because in the last ten years the rainfall is below average, with the exception of the year 2017-2018, which still did not produce a lot either, and winter has gone from first to third place as the main source of precipitation in Andalucía after spring and autumn".

The regional delegate of Aemet recalled that winters used to bring "large persistent storms, with not much wind, and a lot of precipitation with a whole week of rain" while now in Andalucía the main contributions are produced with occasional "spring and autumns with torrential rains, which leave a lot in one place and little in another, and obviously less quantity".

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