Three days of intense rains in Barcelona that we have learned to value as it should. Drought still continues but the rains of the last few months have filled the reservoirs and softened their effects, to the point that the last rain showers of this week in Barcelona have left a great news: Barcelona has exceeded in half a year all the water registered in 2023 and 2022.
This is indicated by the Obsevatori Fabra, which up to 20.30h. on June 11 had collected 32.4 l/m2, a value that has made the city reach 310.1 l/m2 accumulated, surpassing the 300 liters reached in 2022 and 2023.
The 2020s, the driest decade in Catalonia’s history
The last three years have been the driest in history since 1914, when Catalonia started taking records. The records for the last few years were as follows:
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- 2022: 307.7 l/m²
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- 2023: 309.5 l/m²
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- 2021: 327.6 l/m²
But let this not be misleading. We are far from alleviating the drought or forgetting the problem of climate change. With the current numbers, and with the whole summer ahead of us, it is worth remembering that the average rainfall for the period 1991-2020 is 621.5 l/m², which is double the current figure.
The usual June average is 32 l/m2 accumulated, so not much more rain is to be expected from here on out. The rainfall, however, has been a blessing for the fight against drought, filling in dying swamps, wetting soils at risk of forest fires and wetting ground vegetation.