Malaga Weather Blog

The Winds of Change

One element governing the daily weather in this area that remains almost constant is the sea temperature. This month it has been around 15 Celsius, give or take a few decimal points. The night-time wind is almost always northwesterly and the strength seldom exceeds 10 knots. There is hardly a cloud in the sky, so predicting the maximum temperature should be easy! Yes, so far this January it has been relatively easy. As a rule of thumb the sea breeze arrives when the land temperature is around 3 degrees higher than the sea temperature. Hey presto, the maximum temperature will be 18 Celsius. Fortunately, it has followed the rules on a number of occasions this month.  While the weather remains relatively mild and unsettled in northwest Europe,  pressure stays high over Iberia. However, some of the charts hint at a change to colder conditions in northwest Europe and if this occurs there will be a knock on effect in southern Spain. A change in the wind direction here usually means east to southeasterlies, and that’s not good news!

Why did the forecast change so much?

An eventful start to the New Year

It is now over a month since measurable rain fell here and Spring seems to be on hold awaiting the next batch of showers. Even though wet weather hasn’t featured in the headlines,  the start of the year has been interesting. On the first day of the month a maximum temperature close to 22 Celsius occurred, but it became cooler and on the morning of the 5th and the temperature was only 5 Celsius, the lowest value so far this winter. The following night was 10 degrees milder and these higher temperatures continued into the 6th. The top temperature on the 6th was 25.9 Celsius and this was one of the warmest January days for over 30 years. During the first week of January there was very little cloud but this has changed over recent days. On Monday morning the fog came as a bit of a surprise but it did clear readily and there was plenty of sunshine, but the last couple of days have been disappointingly cloudy. It’s not just the cloud that’s depressing it’s also the relentless chilly but humid wind off the sea. Fortunately it hasn’t been too strong and the local vegetation (and cars!) haven’t been caked in salt. Okay, we’ve seen the clouds, now we want the rain!.

The Sunny Coast

How different this December is developing compared with December 2010. Last year, much of northern Europe was snowbound and although Malaga was much warmer of course, it was, nevertheless, a fairly unpleasant month. Over 317mm (12.5 ins) of rain fell in December, the equivalent of 6 months worth of rain for London!. When the weather pattern in northern latitudes is reversed or blocked it usually brings bad weather to this area. For example, a cold easterly airstream in Britain and the Low Countries usually means that low pressure is centred over France or the Mediterranean. At best it may produce a cold, strong northwesterly wind, but with sunshine in Malaga, At worst it produces moist southwesterly winds and copious amounts of rain. This December has produced an unsettled westerly airstream across northern Europe  and  that really is good news for the Costa del Sol. High pressure prevails over Iberia with many days of sunshine and only the occasional weak weather front to spoil the blue skies. Unfortunately, at the end of this week there is a hint of a blocked situation over northwest Europe with high pressure developing over, or near to the British Isles. Not only does it often lead to a deterioration in the wreather here. it may also  mean the frustration of fogbound airports for those southbound visitors.    

The second half of Autumn!

This is a magical time of year in southern Spain. The 60+ millimetres of rain that fell on west Malaga last week have given a very wet start to November. The unsettled spell has also produced a good covering of snow on the Sierra Nevada ski resorts. http://sierranevada.es/estacion/en-pista/webcams.aspx  The fresher weather that has followed the rain is unacceptable to native Andalucians who are now wrapping up in thick sweaters and leather jackets, but for the northern europeans the weather is idyllic. Day-time temperatures of 19 or 20 on the coast  is an acceptable summer value for residents of Bergen and Belfast, so many tourists and ex-pats are thoroughly enjoying the dawn to dusk sunshine. Nights are now pleasantly cool but the rain has reduced the sea temperature to a value that is too low for enjoyable swimming. It now seems hard to imagine that just 3 weeks ago the sea temperature was an inviting 23 Celsius, nights were warm and humid, with the added discomfort of mosquitoes, and days were soft. However, as the oranges show their ripened colour and hibiscuses bloom in abundance, the second half of a autumn is the  time to savour.

It never rains it pours…..in Malaga

During the last three days nearly 48  mm of rain have fallen in west Malaga and the usual problems have arisen on the roads. It never seems to rain lightly, it always falls in bucket loads. Interestingly, there have been three different types of heavy rain. On Saturday, a ‘supercell’ composed of a large mass of cumulonimbus clouds, produced several hours of thunderstorms and some very heavy downpours, although the worst of the rain appeared to fall to the west of us between Ronda and Marbella. Nevertheless, over 16mm was recorded.   Yesterday a trough developed west of Malaga with an impressive thunderstorm in the morning followed by sunshine and scattered thundery showers during the afternoon. A mere 7mm of rain fell here, but higher totals probably occurred east of Malaga as the trough intensified. Today, there was not a thunderstorm in sight, yet over 24mm of rain fell here,  and orographic enhancement during this bout of frontal rain probably gave well over 50mm on the sierras inland from the costa. No complaints, the parched countryside is very pleased!