Wet Spanish Winter

Un Tren de Borrascas

One of the reasons I wanted to live in Spain is that I find the cold, lack of light and short days of winter in the northeast of the US difficult. My energy flags and I don’t go out as much as I should. I dig in. We chose to live in the south of Spain as we knew that areas in the north get a lot of rain in winter. We had travelled to Cádiz in January before and knew that there was a lot of sun here even when it was chilly outside. We did not know that we would arrive in Cádiz during an unusual winter.

While the US got pummeled by cold and snow in January, here in Spain we had rainstorm after rainstorm after rainstorm. The local news called it un tren de borrascas (a train of storms) that started in early in January and kept going into February.

The storms here are named much as we name hurricanes in the US. We went from Francis to Leonardo in January, so seven storms in four weeks. Then in the first week of February, we had Marta and during the second week, we had Oriana. On average there are seven rainy days in Cadiz in December and January, and yet this past December there were thirteen and so many in January that I stopped counting. And these were not just short passing storms, we experienced multiple days when it poured for hours with winds up to 60 mph.

Wet Cádiz, by Oscar Stern

By the end of January, the situation got dire in Cádiz province. The biggest danger in the city was getting blown over, but there was intense flooding in a mountain town called Grazalema, which got as much rain in one day as Madrid gets in one year. The town of 1600 was totally evacuated due to the flooding and fear of seismic activity caused by all of the water.

The wet and damp was hard, but it was compounded by the local reaction to the rain. When the rains started in January the storms were noted, but shrugged off. It was winter after all. But as the storms continued and picked up in severity, with us living under yellow or orange alerts multiple days a week, the locals became alarmed. When we said to someone that this is not what we expected for winter in Cádiz, we were told that this was not normal, that never in their 30, 40 or even 60 years of living in this area had they seen a winter like this. For a country with a strong outdoor culture, where people go on daily walks, and spend time sitting in outdoor cafes, not being able to spend time outside was a big adjustment. And for me as well. I love this aspect of life here.

Eating Outdoors, by Oscar Stern

By the time Leonardo hit in late January, the community was buzzing. Why won’t the wind and rains stop? What has happened to our winter? Rain in January is normal, but not rain without a pause, not with such cold temperatures. I was taking a Spanish class at the time, and my teacher had lived abroad for many years and had recently returned to Cádiz. Each class started with her sharing how winter used to be here—with days warm enough to swim in the ocean, with more sun than rain. I felt as if she did not recognize the town she called home with all of the rain. And with all of this discussion, I began obsessing on the weather news, checking the inaccurate iPhone weather map too often, reading the Spanish weather news reports and following local newspapers and government agencies on Instagram so that I could be kept up-to-date on the weather.

The rain itself could be good for the environment and the water table. When we came to Spain two years ago there was talk about a drought and water restrictions. I think about all the olives and grapes that will be happily fed and thriving this year, but by the end of January some of the reservoirs were actually too full and the government started to release water. Last year’s winter was also bad, but not as bad as this one, so no one knows if this was just two bad winters in a row or if the climate is changing and the winter in the south of Spain is getting wetter. But either way, if we are here next winter, I will be better prepared for what we might get.

We have had two days of sun in a row and I have appreciated every movement of the warmth and light. Since we got to Spain, Oscar (my husband) has been making illustrations of life here. I have woven in a couple above and am going to end with a few more that he has created about the winter. Plus a photo of a beach club that got pummeled by the wind and rain.

The sun and the shade, by Oscar Stern

Cádiz Winter, by Oscar Stern

I surrender, by Oscar Stern