Madrid Community
Madrid Community Geography & Climate
Geography
The Valencian Community is a narrow strip along the Mediterranean, around 500 kilometres of coast with mountains close behind it almost everywhere.
The coastal plain
A fertile lowland between the sea and the hills, in places only a few kilometres wide, carrying almost all the population, the citrus groves and the cities. The soil is alluvial and the water comes from rivers and aquifers rather than rain.
The huerta
The irrigated market gardens around Valencia are one of the oldest continuously functioning agricultural systems in Europe, watered by a network of acequias laid out under Muslim rule and administered ever since by the Tribunal de las Aguas, a court of eight elected farmers that meets in public outside the cathedral every Thursday at noon and is recognised by UNESCO as the oldest functioning judicial institution in Europe.
The Albufera
A shallow freshwater lagoon ten kilometres south of the city, separated from the sea by a pine-covered sandbar and surrounded by rice paddies. Once far larger, it is now a natural park and an important stop for migrating birds.
The mountains
The Iberian System meets the Baetic ranges here, giving limestone massifs behind the coast — Penyagolosa at 1,813 metres in the north, the Aitana and the dramatic Penon de Ifach rising straight out of the sea at Calpe.
The Costa Blanca
South of Denia the coast changes character: limestone headlands drop straight into deep water, cut by small calas of shingle and pine, with the Penon de Ifach and the Serra Gelada rising abruptly behind. The clarity of the water here is a consequence of the rock — very little river sediment reaches this stretch of coast.
Rivers
Short, steep and mostly dry, which makes them dangerous when it does rain. The Turia was diverted around the city after 1957 and its old bed is now a park.
Climate Patterns
The Valencian Community has a Mediterranean climate with a semi-arid edge, and it is one of the sunniest parts of Europe.
Summer
June to September is hot: 26 to 32°C on the coast with high humidity from the sea, which makes it feel warmer than inland Spain at the same temperature. Nights stay above 20°C in August. The sea reaches 26 to 27°C by late summer, which is as warm as the Mediterranean gets.
Winter
December to February is mild: 8 to 17°C on the coast, with a great deal of sun and only occasional rain. Frost is rare at sea level and common in the inland mountains, which get snow.
Rain
Around 450 millimetres a year on the coast — genuinely dry — falling almost entirely in autumn and spring.
La gota fria
The regional weather event that matters. In late summer and autumn, a pool of cold air aloft over a very warm Mediterranean can produce enormous convective storms that drop extraordinary rainfall in hours — several hundred millimetres in a day is possible. Dry riverbeds fill within minutes, and the resulting flash floods have repeatedly caused deaths and major damage across the region.
The sea’s influence
The Mediterranean here is shallow and warms through the summer, which keeps coastal nights warm well into October and delays the first real cold until December. It is also what loads the autumn storms: the warmer the sea at the end of summer, the more energy available to a cold pool passing overhead, which is why the worst gota fria events cluster in September and October.
Sunshine
Around 2,700 to 2,800 hours a year, among the highest in Europe.