It’s not about 🦶 ⚽

These two images are the weather forecast of next 10 days. Since Barcelona is in a coastal area, I always thought it’s warmer than Madrid. However at least for the next 10 days, the weather in Madrid seems to be warmer than Barcelona. Is it normal? Can anyone explain what’s at play here?

11 comments

  1. Places in the coast have a whole sea of thermal mass that helps avoid it being too hot or too cold.

    Madrid has almost 0% of humidity, so when it’s cold is colder, when is hot is hotter.

  2. Seas/Oceans act as a thermo regulator. Coastal places’ temperatures (apart from extreme/special locations such as latitude, currents etc) are not as extreme as places of the interior.

  4. Barcelona is the new north “Except for the rain.” In most cases even colder than Bilbao Lulz!

    And if you move in some remote areas of the Pyrenees is a little Narnia. xd

  5. You don’t need to go as far as Madrid, I live in a small coastal city but work 35 km away. That’s enough to see differences of up to 10 to 15 degrees during the peaks of summer and winter, always more extreme in the interior (colder when cold, hotter when hot).

    Living next to the sea is much better.

  6. Notwithstanding the effects of climate change on the weather of both cities, that difference between them is perfectly normal. Compare:

    + [Climate of Madrid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Madrid)

    + [Climate of Barcelona](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Barcelona)

    Being inland (and at a significant altitude) isolates Madrid from the moderating effect of the sea on temperature. In summary, during a warm day both land and water heat up from the sun, and they warm the air above them; warm air rises, but as it’s mostly rising “equally” in both land and sea the effect averages out. However, once the sun starts to set, the sea cools down much much quicker than the land. As a result, [during the night, air over land rises faster than air over the sea, leaving a “vacuum” to be filled by the cooler air coming from the sea](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/LAKE_BREEZE-en.gif). That is what causes what we usually call ‘a sea breeze’ in the evenings and night, and which moderates the temperature in Barcelona.

    _[**Note:** I may be missing some details above as I’m speaking from memory, take it with a grain of (sea) salt]_

    All this is unrelated to another difference in experienced weather between Madrid and Barcelona. Even though during the summer Madrid is almost always hotter than Barcelona, Barcelona can *feel* much hotter due to its high humidity. The reason for this is that when it’s warm our bodies cool by sweating All The Time, even if we don’t notice. The water quickly evaporates off our skin, taking with it some of the heat. However, the more humid the surrounding air is, the harder it is for water to evaporate and thus take away the heat. As a result, however hot it may be in Madrid, you can take a cold shower, sit in the shade and feel much better as the water evaporates away. Use the same strategy in Barcelona, however, and the relief will be short lived — you are now too hot *and* wet.

  8. I live in Ciudad Real, 140km in the south of Madrid with a similar altitude, and the weather here is horrible, up to -4° 2 months ago and rn temperate go up to 28°, and you can go out in the morning with 7° and then at 4pm is 26°, simply horrible

  9. They’re 600kms apart and different climatic zones. Just because they’re on the same country doesn’t mean they have the same climate! Spain has the most climatic variety in Europe, ranging from subtropical to subpolar.

Leave a Reply