Christmas will bring snow, rain and colder-than-normal weather to much of Spain

Christmas 2025 will be marked by an unstable and colder than usual weather in much of Spain, with a drop in temperatures of between 3C and 5C in the western half of the country, with rain and snowfall in many areas of mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands, as the forecasts of Meteored and eltiempo.es warn.

Meteored expert Francisco Martín says that, late on Saturday, a new trough will affect mainland Spain, with the entry of cold air of maritime polar origin. This will lead to the appearance of snowfall in several mountain systems of the country on Sunday.

Martín says that temperatures will not be extreme, although they will remain below normal values, which increases the likelihood of snowfall in the mountain systems of the north and centre of the country. In general, snow is expected to alternate with periods of clear and cloudy skies, without continuous precipitation throughout the day.

At the same time, the Canary Islands might also record some showers in their more mountainous areas, although with less intensity than in mainland Spain.

Meteored science writer Gabriel Bernabé forecasts precipitation in the form of snow in Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja, Castilla y León, Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha on Sunday.

Snow will accumulate at an altitude of between 1,300 and 1,500 metres in most of central and northern Spain, but dropping to between 900 and 1,100 metres in the north-west during the morning and evening. It may even reach 500 or 700 metres in specific mountain areas.

The highest accumulations will be concentrated in the main mountain ranges, especially in the Central System, with up to 15 centimetres, the Huesca Pyrenees with about ten centimetres and between five and ten centimetres in the Galician Massif, the Cantabrian Mountains, the Iberian System and Sierra Nevada.

In terms of temperatures, Bernabé expects that Asturias, Galicia, Castilla y León, Aragón and Castilla-La Mancha will be cold on Sunday, with a greater drop in temperatures in the north-west due to the entry of cold air from the Atlantic.

Minimum temperatures could be around 0C in Oviedo and 3C in places such as Valladolid or Santiago de Compostela, while remaining above 10C in coastal areas of the Gulf of Cadiz and the Mediterranean thanks to the moderating effect of the sea.

In the east, temperatures will be milder, awaiting the gradual arrival of the cold front.

Eltiempo.es has forecast that a not very active front will arrive on Thursday and persist until Saturday. On Sunday, two more fronts will cross the country due to a cold storm, accompanied by its respective trough. With them will come more rain, snow and a drop in temperatures.

The first front will arrive on Thursday afternoon, slowly advancing eastwards. As it passes, it will leave rain in Andalucía, Extremadura, Castilla y León, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Navarre, La Rioja, Madrid and parts of Castilla-La Mancha. It will also leave snow above 900 to 1,200 metres in some areas.

As for temperatures, they will fall from this Friday onwards and bottom out on Monday in most of the country. Maximum temperatures will rise between Tuesday and Wednesday, coinciding with Christmas Eve. Even so, the recovery will be gradual, as unsettled conditions and cold air will persist.

Meanwhile, minimum temperatures will mostly drop, but given the cloudiness and the wind, they will not drop significantly in the early morning. More intense frosts are expected only in high mountain areas.

Looking ahead to next week, Sunday's front will continue on Monday, with heavy precipitation in Aragon, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. Snow above 600 metres will accumulate in Aragon and Catalonia, heavy in some areas.

However, in the early hours of Monday morning, a new front will enter from the north-west, heading south-east, which, together with the first one, will weaken and withdraw as the hours go by, leaving precipitation limited to well-exposed mountain areas, such as the Pyrenees or the north-west of the Betic systems.

In the Canary Islands, daily rainfall will continue on the north side of the islands. For the moment, eltiempo.es does not expect them to be very heavy, but they will continue accumulating.

The weather portal says that it is not yet clear exactly how the situation will evolve on Sunday and Monday, so "uncertainty is very high for the following days". In any case, its models seem to indicate that the instability will probably continue with a new cold storm from the north-west to the rest of Spain.

According to current predictions, the storm will move southwards along the Atlantic coasts of Galicia and Portugal on Tuesday. Rainfall would continue in the form of showers throughout Christmas Eve in much of mainland Spain, although with a tendency to subside in the late hours.

Christmas Eve could have somewhat more stable weather, as Spain will be in the middle of a transition between this storm and a pocket of cold air from the north-east. This pocket will arrive at the end of the day, dragging colder air in the middle and lower layers, which could reactivate precipitation over the country.