Record Rain in south, Drought in North : a Look at Europe's unusual weather

2025's rainy spring has brought a swift end to the droughts plaguing several Spanish regions, restoring ecosystems to parched fields, reviving withered trees and shrubs, and bringing back a lush, green landscape not seen for a long time.

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It has also placed the coun-try's reservoir levels much higher the averages of the last decade. At the same time, drought has spread across central and northern European countries that are not used to water shortages. But why have the continent's rainfall pat-terns have been reversed?

In general, northern Europe has more rain and, importantly, more rainy days than southern Europe. If we focus on the Atlantic coast, for example, Ireland is rainier than western Andalusia or the Algarve. This is only true in broad terms though, as even southern Spain has very rainy enclaves, such as the Sierra de Grazalema in Cadiz.