Always sunny in Spain, right? ...... wrong

[swag72]

I know that the weather is pretty pants in the UK in general....... that's one of the reasons I moved, seriously. It's also the reason I took up astro in Spain. Fast forward 8 years and the weather is getting worse I am absolutely convinced. I just had to say it as many folks seem to think I live in a country with great, clear, dark skies. 

Here's my weekly forecast...... 

 

 

[tomato]

Yes, as I gaze ruefully at the Sat24 website, I do cast my eyes Southwards, and to my surprise there does seem to have been more cloud cover over Spain lately.

Might still have to be Atacama for my remote setup.... 

[Z3roCool]

I will be travelling South in January for the week from the UK but going a  little further. Will be on the edges of the Sahara, long journey but so worth it for the sky...just watch the sand storm kick up as I get there!!

[vlaiv]

Some time ago I ran across results of simulation for climate change for my country and it predicted raise in temperature (3-4C) and drop in rainfall (which is going to be bad, since we get here on average 600mm annually as is)  - which can be good for astronomy, but poor otherwise.

Looking at weather phenomena in past couple of years, I kind of start to get the sense of exactly these changes happening (too small scale to be certain, and regular deviations in weather make it rather difficult to tell).

This year has been particularly interesting - we had quite a bit more stormy days (but not enough rainfall - which is odd, a lot of thunder and clouds but very short lasting low intensity showers). We experienced very hot autumn, with daily temperatures staying above 20-25C for most part of October and well into November (with averages 12.4C and 7C respectively, while averages for max temperatures being 18.1C and 11C) and earth is bone dry. I've heard multiple complaints from people doing agricultural production that they are late with field works due to inability to plow the earth - just too dry.

I mention all of this as reminder that climate change is upon us and if you want to get a sense of what it will be like in your area - try to look up forecasts and simulations to get general idea (somewhere it may locally get hotter or even cooler than before, and some places will experience raise in rainfall and number of cloudy days, while others will see drop).

 

[pete_l]

Yes, this year has been cloudier than usual.
I plot the weather data from my local government weather station about 15km away.

While it doesn't directly give cloud cover data I can infer that from their sunshine intensity figures. I reckon that if a day gets 75% of its maximum solar radiation, then that counts as sunny. This varies across the year so it isn't a simple calculatoin. But it does bear out my impression.
Here's 2018 up until the end of October. Compare that with 2017 - a great year!

 

[Peter Drew]

The worst rain storm I've ever experienced was in Tenerife! (Spain).    ?   

[PhotoGav]

Sara, you should consider moving back to the Independent Counties of England, back to back clear skies are forecast in the southern territories this weekend:

[swag72]

2 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

Sara, you should consider moving back to the Independent Counties of England, back to back clear skies are forecast in the southern territories this weekend:

 

I'll get my Ryanair ticket  The UK is clearly the place to be 

[david_taurus83]

We went to Mallorca a few weeks ago on a family holiday. Villa to ourselves with its own outdoor pool. I took the bins for some cheeky observing at night. It rained every single day.?

[RayD]

A few weeks ago we had the worst storms and flooding in our area for 40 years.  The Mayor of Ardarla, where there was 450L of rain overnight (per M2) said it's the worst she has ever known.

In the last 3 trips out here I have had 2 full nights of imaging, out of about 40 nights.  I've been here again for 11 days this trip and not had a single clear night.

It has been total pants this year, and so far I have been logged on to my observatory in the UK imaging from here more than I ever imagined I would.

[Davey-T]

24 minutes ago, RayD said:

In the last 3 trips out here I have had 2 full nights of imaging, out of about 40 nights.  I've been here again for 11 days this trip and not had a single clear night.

My son went at the same time as you Ray and was trying to get back for a week but all the ferries were cancelled because of the weather, finally arrived after a choppy crossing on Tuesday.

He's only back for work until the end of the month then off again until march, he's not too bothered about clear skies as long as it's windy enough for kite surfing 

Dave

[RayD]

4 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

My son went at the same time as you Ray and was trying to get back for a week but all the ferries were cancelled because of the weather, finally arrived after a choppy crossing on Tuesday.

He's only back for work until the end of the month then off again until march, he's not too bothered about clear skies as long as it's windy enough for kite surfing 

Dave

Yes we didn't think we were going to make it out as the track to our house washed away, but checking ferries meant we would have to wait until December!  We emailed the Mayor and he got diggers round to open the road!

This is how it was in the village.  Your Son could surf to his heart's content here!! 

 

We are 5k outside the village and escaped the worse, but still had lots of land slips to deal with.

[swag72]

This morning our dried up river bed is flowing freely and the dam towards the village is overflowing (there's normally no water at all and I often walk up over it!) .... Oh and it's still raining  

[Gina]

The cloud base has descended here and we're right in it - can barely see my observatory from the house! 

[swag72]

It's not stopped raining since 09:00 this morning and so now the dam looks rather full. The water behind the dam is at least 10 metres deep at this point.

 

[Gina]

WOW!!

[Ken Mitchell]

Just had a week without clouds ( N-Spain).  The south at the moment though...

This fall has been pretty good in terms of clear skies here, can't complain.

Ken

[Gina]

A week without clouds???  Wassat??

[Davey-T]

Continuous fog and drizzle here, they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining 

Dave 

[Gina]

Same here!!

[Ken Mitchell]

18 minutes ago, Gina said:

A week without clouds???  Wassat??

2 more clear nights predicted, then finally rain and clouds. I could use some sleep it's been a hell of a week? 

Ken

[swag72]

Well it stopped raining for the morning..... Had an interesting conversation with my neighbour yesterday who works for the 112 Emergency services coordination. Apparently we've had the most rain this year in 80 years and since September, we've had 35 days of rain. As it's only the 3rd week of November, that's a lot of cloud for us that we don't normally get

[RayD]

18 minutes ago, swag72 said:

Well it stopped raining for the morning..... Had an interesting conversation with my neighbour yesterday who works for the 112 Emergency services coordination. Apparently we've had the most rain this year in 80 years and since September, we've had 35 days of rain. As it's only the 3rd week of November, that's a lot of cloud for us that we don't normally get

It's been awful.  I saw a video online last week of street flooding in Alicante, so it's right across the whole of the South.  Unprecedented and a huge shame as many of the grape and olive harvests have been so badly affected.

[Gina]

Raining here too - again!!

[Davey-T]

I blame Enery Iggins 

Dave