Well, the summer is well and truly here.
If you are in Spain that is! The UK, and in fact much of northern Europe, for the greater part of June can be disappointing time for weather, with frequent showers ruining the best laid plans of picnickers and day trippers across the region.
However over in Spain, as you can expect, summer is often warm and sunny and for holidaymakers without ties to school holidays, this can be a great time to visit Spain for the best weather around, but without the utter scorching and stifling heat of August.
What’s more, considerably cheaper plane fares and accommodation can be found and booked online before the school holiday times which is when the prices go up! So if you are planning a relaxing break over in Spain, where is the best place to go to catch the most sunshine and the least chance of rain?
It is worth noting that, for the people who don’t know, it does rain in Spain and even in the summer time too. All the hot weather the country enjoys for most of the year means that the atmosphere is constantly evaporating that water, which as you can imagine, has to come back down at some point.
If the ideal trip to Spain for you is to lie on a Spanish beach, sipping a cold cocktail, and more importantly, catching those lovely rays of sun, then rain could certainly spoil your plans! Of course there is far more to the country than just beaches, but if you plan accordingly and do your research on the sort of weather to expect on your Spain holiday, any rain you may come across would be a light shower, and shouldn’t dampen your plans to much!
With that in mind, let’s compare and contrast the expected sunshine and rainfall averages in both northern and southern Spain, for the month of June.
The northern regions of Spain are a very different place than the south, including the average weather patterns which are markedly different than the hotter Costa areas.
The north can be defined by looking at a map of Spain and starting on the left at La Coruña, and moving eastwards until you hit the Girona area, close to the border with France.
The entire region is topographically very different than the south or east, with the mountains of the Picos de Europa and of course the Pyrenees too, and coupled with stronger weather fronts coming in from the Atlantic coast, it’s often a much windier place than the Mediterranean regions.
The average temperature for June in Coruña is only about 20 degrees, compared with Seville in the south, for example, which enjoys 31 degrees at this time. So to carry on out our comparison, let’s look at Coruña again and we can see that the average rainfall for the city is 42mm, compared with Seville, which you would be lucky to see anything more than about 13mm.
This is also true with sunshine hours in the two cities, as Seville at this time would expect 12 clear days of hot sunny weather, compared to Coruña again, which would see only 4 clear days during that month, with an average temperature of 20 degrees.
Even if we move towards the North eastern part of Spain, around San Sebastian you could still see a surprising 96mm of rain, with an average temperature of around 22 degrees.
PLAZA DE LA CONSTITUCION IN SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN
It is worth noting that it is very similar weather in June to Torquay, back in the UK!
Even looking briefly at other parts of Spain during June, the eastern parts of the country such as Valencia have average temperatures of 26 degrees, rainfall of 23mm and an average daily dose of sunshine bordering on 8 or 9 clear days, so the weather all round in Spain during June, just cannot be 100% guaranteed, which for the first time visitor to the country, can be an eye opener!
So what about Spain’s islands like Ibiza or Mallorca?
Even those highly popular islands are, contrary to popular belief, not basked in sun all year round, in fact during June, Ibiza gets around 14mm of rain, which admittedly isn’t much, and sees average temperatures of around 26 degrees maximum, so a bit cooler than the mainland and a good chance that any rain will only be brief and won’t ruin your vacation.
Sant Antoni Ibiza cloudy weather in Spain in June
Whilst Spain is generally a warm and dry country for much of the year, it still does get its fair share of the wet stuff, even in the summer and for absolutely guaranteed sun and warm weather, the north can be unreliable. So in summary, the northern parts of Spain will be cooler, more so on the coastal areas with the prevailing winds, than the south, with a much higher chance of rain than the south too.
The best place to catch the most sunshine in Spain, in June, would be the far south of Spain in places such as Huelva, enjoying at least 15 days of guaranteed sun, or perhaps Malaga or Granada, both enjoying at least 13 days of sunny and clear blue skies with an average temperature of about 30 degrees and the chance of rain slim at only about 10mm for the whole month of June. So we’ll see you on the beach soon.
Please note that this article is based on averages only, as world wide weather patterns do change all the time.