January 2017’s second wave of arctic/siberia air has made it’s presence felt particularly over the Iberian Peninsula. Winter’s tend to be cold and snowy in the high elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of central Spain but snow and sub-freezing weather tends to be much rarer along the beaches of the Mediterranean.

Western Europe has been experiencing an omega blocking pattern with blocking high pressure over the UK while a cold upper low has been shivering Spain and areas that typically enjoy mild, sunny 17C days at this time of year.

Temperatures have been well above normal here in Scotland at 9-12C thanks to SW winds while unusually cold with record low maximums experienced all the way to southern Spain where it’s only warmed to 5C even during the afternoon hours in places such as Alicante and Murcia with biting wind chills of -7C witnessed up the coast in Valencia and Barcelona.

Unusual snowfall was likely aided by warmer than normal Mediterranean waters and unusually cold ENE winds as the below graphics indicate.

First Snowfall On Costa Blanca Beaches In 80-118 Years?

In the coastal city of Cartagena, there has been just two accounts of major snowfall, the first being 1914 and the other 1926. Since 1939 there has been no reported snowfall within the city up until January 2017 when a brief covered occurred before snow changed over to sleet.

Outlying, higher elevated parts of Cartagena (Campo de Cartagena) saw the most significant snowfall in some 50 years.

Torravieja, Valencia sees first snow since Dec 26, 1926!

Xàbia (Jàvea) Beach on the Costa Blanca, just north of Benidorm

Beaches of Valencia

Murcia

Icicles hang off the exit to a tunnel beneath the Eugi reservoir.

Record 6-Metre Waves in Valencia, Catalunya & Murcia

The deep low spinning off eastern Spain and trapped beneath a 1040+ high for up to 6 days has bringing a persistent ENE gale against the Med coast has generated unusually high waves.

In fact many buoys off the Spain coast have recorded their largest waves. Valencia recorded the highest wave of 6.45 metres, a full metre higher than the previous record set back in December 2009. In Cabo de Palos in SE Murcia, a wave height of 6.33 metres well exceeding 5.7 metres back in January 2013.

Coastal Tarragona and Dragonera also recorded wave heights of 6 metres while Barcelona recorded a wave height of 4.97m.

These impressive wave heights still fall short of the Mediterranean record of 8.15m recorded at Begur, Gerona in December 2014. The Mediterranean while can be stormy as seen last week, doesn’t compete with the vast openness of the Atlantic where wind energy can travel thousands of miles and stack sees well over 10, sometimes 20 metres off northern Spain. The record wave height off Spain on the Atlantic side is an incredible 27.81 metres off A Coruna.

Frigid Central Plateau

Frosty view from the Puerto Navacerrada Observatory near Madrid where the temperature hit at least -13.8C.

Rain then ice…

Cold within the Andalucia interior.

Murcia set a new record low maximum yesterday at 3.6C breaking the old record set in 2006.

The heavily snow covered, sheltered high mountain plateau region of central Spain has recorded some very cold temperatures with several nights at -10/-15C and below.

Coldest reading was -23C. As cold as this is, the coldest temperature ever recorded in Spain is -30C.

Quite the contrast between highs in the Canaries and lows over the interior of Spain.

These are the lowest values ever recorded in a selection of cities across Spain.

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Teresa García ‏@teresagl96