Climate of Spain: Regions, Causes and Characteristics

Relief and Geographic Features

Depressions and Plateaus: Ebro depression, located between the Pre-Pyrenees, the Iberian and Catalan mountain ranges. Guadalquivir valley, between the steep Betic mountain ranges.

Coastal Relief and Peninsula Coasts:

• Atlantic coasts: Cantabria, Galicia, and the Andalusian Atlantic coast.
• Mediterranean coasts: Mediterranean Andalusia, Murcia, the Gulf of Valencia, and the Catalan coast.

Mechanisms Influencing Climate

Atmospheric Circulation:

• High altitude: the jet stream.
• Surface atmospheric circulation: high pressure or low pressure anticyclones and depressions.

Factors Influencing the Climate of Spain

Countercyclical Azores anticyclone: Dominates in summer over the Iberian Peninsula, creating a hot and dry air mass.

Atlantic depressions: Depressions are driven by the constant westerly winds, causing abundant precipitation.

Polar air masses: Coming from Siberia and the Arctic, they cause cold and intense snowfall.

Mediterranean depressions: Originated by the cooling of air heated during summer.

Characteristics of the Iberian Peninsula

• Breadth of the peninsula: Peripheral reliefs isolate the interior lands from the influence of the ocean.
• Mountain systems: They force air to rise and produce rainfall.
• Altitude: Temperatures decrease with altitude.

Climate in Spain

Oceanic or Atlantic climate: Mild temperatures due to the influence of the ocean and abundant rainfall.

• Climate varieties: Mountain and oceanic transition.
• Rivers: Short rivers.
• Vegetation: Deciduous forest, heath, and meadows.

Mediterranean climate: Hot, dry summers and scarce rainfall (spring and autumn).

• Climate varieties: Long, cold winters and short, dry summers in the interior and mountains, with scarce precipitation.
• Rivers: Irregular rivers.
• Vegetation: Holm oak and pine forests, and shrubland.

Canary Islands: Mild temperatures all year round. Precipitation is caused by trade winds on the western islands. Rainfall is scarcer on the islands nearer to Africa.

• Climate varieties: Vary according to altitude.

Climate of Catalonia

• Temperatures: Highest towards the south. The influence of the sea acts as a thermal regulator.
• Precipitation: Decreases from north to south.
• Maximums: Found on the highest peaks of the Pyrenees.