For months, one of the favorite activities of half of Spain was entering embalses.net and see how the country’s water reserves were. If we did, the most common reaction could only be described with one word: tranquility.
The water impounded on December 1 was 54.02%. That is 3% more than the same week last year and, mind you, almost 10% above the average of the last 10 years. Everything seems in order, but the story is always more complicated than it seems.
Because, while these data seem to improve, more and more towns declare their tap water ‘non-drinkable’‘. That is to say, despite everything, we cannot lose December.
A key month for water in Spain. Meteorologist César Rodríguez Ballesteros said it a few days ago“climatologically, December is one of the rainiest months of the year in Spain. Of the 2621 stations on the map, it is the rainiest at 1075, the 2nd rainiest at 385 and the 3rd at 236.”
It is true that it does not rain the same way or at the same time throughout the country. It is obvious, but it is good to keep it in mind: the eastern peninsula — DANAs territory — the most important months it’s september and, above all, October. In the heart of the Ebro and Duero Valley, the key month it’s may. And, curiously, in the Cerdanya area, the rainiest month it’s august.
However, I insist, by extension (almost half of the country) and location (the parts of Spain with the greatest storage capacity), December is a key month. Above all, after a very dry october and a barely normal November.
And, a priori, we have good news. As we explained a few weeks agothe start of December 2025 in Spain would be marked by a very active Atlantic circulation thanks to a significant “negative NAO”.
The ‘NAO’ is the ‘North Atlantic Oscillation‘ is what meteorologists call the eternal “give and take” maintained by the Azores anticyclone and the Icelandic low, the two major atmospheric phenomena that govern the meteorology of the North Atlantic.
When the index we use to “measure who is winning” is negative, the Azores anticyclone is weaker than normal and, for this reason, it cannot block deep Atlantic storms. The direct consequence is that they circulate further south than normal: right at our latitude.
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A mattress that can disappear at any time. Looking at the data, even in the most optimistic analysis it is clear that we are coming from very dry and irregular autumns: our water system is affected and the water cushion can evaporate very quickly in spring.
To do? As experts often repeat“the (next) droughts are managed with full reservoirs.” Now, even provisionally, they are. It’s time to prepare for summer. However, everything seems to indicate that we will not do so. And, in that at least, yes we have experience.
Image | Copernicus
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The news
December is the key month for rain in half of Spain: if we miss it, we will go back to square one
was originally published in
Xataka
by
Javier Jimenez
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