Nearly Into May And Significant Snow For Spain? (Includes Video!)

Written by Mark Vogan on April 28, 2013 in Rest of Europe, Videos with 0 Comments

For much of the past week, I’ve showed you the much cooler and very unsettled weather heading for Spain and Portugal while major heat builds from Italy to western Russia and the jet stream takes a major buckle once again.

Last night’s post was dedicated to the very cool and unsettled weather over the Southwest of Europe and Northwest Africa but I want to show you some crazy stuff the GFS is suggesting.

The GFS as well as other models are suggesting very unusual and significant late April snows for the higher ground of central Spain and this could cover a broad area. This has got to be one of the latest snow event’s on record.

Just days ago, folks in this part of the world were able to get out and finally enjoy some spring warmth, but it’s back to winter again and we’re just days from May. Unbelievable.

Check this out…

Here’s the GFS 850 temps.

Courtesy/Owned by AccuWeather Pro

There is plenty of dynamic cooling beneath the upper low which means, these types of lows within this setup, can produce their own cold air as well as tap cold air being drawn south from a low north of the UK.

Here’s the GFS snow projections for the next 24 hrs. Ignore the snow over the UK, only higher terrain will get some snow but check out Spain, the mountains surrounding the capital, Madrid is likely to turn white and several inches is possible over the highest peaks. BTW, The bluer colours shows the more likely areas which get accumulating snow out of this.

Don’t think I can remember seeing this chart for this late in the season.

Courtesy/Owned by AccuWeather Pro

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Here’s the surface low responsible for all the cool and unsettled weather currently affecting Iberia.

Courtesy/Owned by MeteoGroup

How cold will it be in coming days?

Today is unseasonably cold with 3pm readings held widely in the 30s and 40s F with even typically balmy Sevilla held at 59 degrees this hour. The average here is 23C or 75F and yesterday saw 75.

Amazingly, it looks as though Madrid has peaked today at just 7C or 45F with thundery, cold rains which may have some sleet mixing within the heavier downpours. The average high is nearer 70F at this time of year and just two days ago, the high in the capital warmed to 73F which was the warmest of the year so far.

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The focus of heaviest precipitation will be over eastern Iberia tonight as you can see from the below GFS precip chart.

Courtesy/Owned by MeteoGroup

When will it warm up?

The upper low will remain spinning almost directly over Iberia through Tuesday according to the ECMWF and so gusty winds, showers and thunderstorms are likely to persist along with some hill snow but from Tuesday into Wednesday, the upper low along with the unsettled conditions appear to pull NNE. This should allow heights and 850 temps to rise and ultimately surface temperatures too.

Tue

Geopotential3250032hPa32and32Temperature32at3285032hPa_Europe_48

Thu

Geopotential3250032hPa32and32Temperature32at3285032hPa_Europe_96

Sat

Geopotential3250032hPa32and32Temperature32at3285032hPa_Europe_144

From Thursday onwards we should see temperatures recover to nearer normal across Spain and Portugal.

Significant Warmth From Italy To Russia

While we see the major late season chill dives into Spain and across the Gibralter Strait into Morocco and Algeria, the heat is building over the central and eastern Med Sea north and east. Expect highs to top 27C or 80F in Rome, 30C or 88F in Bucharest and 23C or 73F all the way up to Moscow. The heat spreads from Italy through the Balkans into Turkey with 32C or 90F in several places and even up into the Ukraine, Kiev is and will continue to enjoy temps a good 10+C above normal for the time of year.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqsh7QEI-ok]

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