…. and Summer is finally on its way
Last weekend it appeared that summer had finally arrived in Spain and beaches and swimming pools were crowded with people anxious to get their first rays of sunshine. However, the hot spell over the weekend didn’t last long and heavy rain returned to some parts of the country on Sunday evening along with a considerable drop in temperatures.
Heavy rainfall in Spain this springtime, especially during May, has reduced Spain’s deficit of water supplies by 9% according to the State Meteorology Agency (AEMET).
As far as rainfall over the whole of the peninsula is concerned an average of 490 litres per square metre was collected when the average for the decade is 536 litres. Furthermore, it has rained more than normal for this time of year in parts of Castilla and León, the Rioja, parts of Navarra and Aragón as well as the Comunidad Valenciana which has helped improve water reserves in these areas.
The consequences of the recent rainfall are that the 5 reservoirs in the Ter-Llobregat system, that supply the 5.
5 million inhabitants of Barcelona and its surrounding area are now at 62.28% of their total capacity which is almost 10 points more than this time last year (56.37%). In fact the current figure is very close to the five year average of 67.46%. Nevertheless water restrictions imposed by the Catalan government still apply.
The persistent rainfall in Catalonia has left the Sau, Susqueda, La Baells, La Llosa del Cavall and Sant Ponç reservoirs with 399,53 cubic hectometres (hm3) of water when just a year ago they only contained 345.01 hm3.
On the other hand, despite the fact that over the last 7 days the water reserves of the Tajo reservoirs (Buendía and Entrepeñas) has increased 9 hm3 and now stands at 381 hm3 it is still just 15.40% of its total capacity (2.
474 hm3). However, these two reservoirs now contain water reserves over the 240 hm3 legal minimum limit.
Despite the fact that the bad weather is set to continue today and tomorrow in Northern Spain, AEMET has forecast a significant improvement in the weather for later on this week.
