The weather in Galicia: from 30 degrees to hail on the same day

One of the things you quickly learn as an expat in Galicia is that the weather here does whatever it likes. And your weather app? It hasn’t got a clue either.

Last Wednesday, it was showing a neat 30 degrees on the screen, with a 15% chance of rain. So, nothing to worry about. Around eleven o’clock in the evening, I heard rumbling in the distance. I popped outside for a moment, just to have a look, and made this video. I thought the storm would pass us by nicely. I was wrong about that.

From ‘maybe a bit of rain’ to horizontal downpours

In no time at all, we were in the thick of it. Wind, rain, lightning – the whole shebang. Yvonne and I had to rush to shut the windows because suddenly there was a gale-force wind. And by wind, I mean: horizontal rain. The sort that makes you wonder where on earth it’s coming from.

30 degrees, but different

It can get quite hot here during the day, and that Wednesday was no exception. But 30 degrees in Galicia feels different from 30 degrees in the Netherlands. Less oppressive, less muggy. The air is drier and there’s almost always a breeze. You don’t stand sweating next to your car; you just drive off.

And what makes a huge difference too: every night it cools down to around 15 degrees. You simply sleep well here. No tropical nights, no tossing and turning under a sheet, no fan keeping you awake. That alone is a world of difference for us compared to the Dutch summers of recent years.

The mornings here also have something magical about them. Mist rises from the river and spreads across the valley. It sometimes looks like a painting. But by ten or half past ten, it clears as if it had never been there, and then it’s time for shorts.

If we had to describe the climate here: to us, it feels a bit like the Netherlands, but a few degrees warmer. And the fluctuations are less extreme. In the Netherlands, you can have 30 degrees one day and 14 the next; here, it’s a bit more gradual. The winters are v

If we had to describe the climate here: to us, it feels a bit like the Netherlands, but a few degrees warmer. And the temperature swings aren’t as extreme. In the Netherlands, it can be 30 degrees one day and 14 the next; here, the changes are a bit more gradual. The winters are mainly wet and cold, but as far as we’re concerned, the rest of the year is fine.

Neither of us are sun worshippers. A day on the beach is more of a punishment than a reward for us, and spending the whole day slathering on sun cream to avoid getting burnt is definitely not our thing. I haven’t put on sun cream once here, but I haven’t got burnt once either. That actually says enough about how well this climate suits us.

Microclimate? Truly micro.

The day after the thunderstorm, I spoke to Rob from naargalicie.nl. He lives about half an hour away from us. They had seen flashes of lightning where he was, but hadn’t had a single drop of rain.

That really says it all about the weather in Galicia. You can live in a microclimate here, and when they say micro, they really mean micro. A different valley, a different hill, a different shower.

Another great example: whilst we were walking around here in shorts, about ten kilometres away as the crow flies on Monte Faro, everything was covered in a few centimetres of hail. The same day, the same region. We were on Monte Faro ourselves today to take photos and drone footage. We’ll be posting a separate blog about that soon, as it’s a beautiful place that deserves its own story. welkom.

More about out life in galicia? Read this: Wat we niet missen aan Nederland