Barcelona Weather

Barcelona weather
Barcelona’s warm, pleasant climate means you’ll be able to enjoy the city all year round. Everybody here spends a lot of time outdoors, strolling along the beautiful streets of the city centre, enjoying tapas and a beer at the street cafés or cycling and jogging along the seafront.

Barcelona’s location on the shores of the Mediterranean brings pleasant temperatures, and although it can get hot at the height of summer –this year a freak current of air from the Sahara briefly pushed the temperature to an all-time high of 39. 3ºC in the city centre– the city’s location means hot summers and cool winters with none of the extremes of a continental climate.

Rainfall, which can be occasionally heavy, again for brief periods, averages 1,000 mm a year and often falls more heavily in Autumn.

What to wear
To enjoy Barcelona weather in summer you’ll need light, airy clothes, and a hat if you’re out and about in the sun all day. Sunglasses are a must as the light can be very strong, especially on the seafront and on the hills behind town. Don’t forget UV protection, even in the city people from cloudier climes can get badly burnt and more than one person’s holidays have been spoiled by over-exposure to the sun on arrival.

Between October and late April you’ll need a warm jacket. A couple of wet, cloudy days combined with a North wind can make the apparent temperature rather chilly. However, on a fine sunny day in a sheltered location the sun can be surprisingly warm and you’ll see plenty of people enjoying a pre-lunch snack in the winter sunshine. The temperature doesn’t usually fall much below 12ºC although on occasions a combination of circumstances mean we have the odd cold snap lasting a few days and it may even snow, although it never settles for long.

Winter often starts and ends with a bit of a bang. Easter is usually stormy and wet and generally marks the end of the wintry weather. After that you can really enjoy bright, sunny, clear, increasingly warmer days that are excellent for all kinds of outdoor activities. By the end of June temperatures are in the upper twenties, the air is not really cool at all, even at night and the summer has taken a firm grip.

August can be very hot and sticky as humidity is usually above 60% and often closes with spectacular thunderstorms and heavy rain. Again, a short spell of stormy weather marks the end of Summer-Autumn and cooler weather sets in during October, although it may stay pleasantly warm right to the end of the month.

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