Clima madrid

CLIMATE
Climate in Madrid is conditioned by the topography. Despite the small surface of the region, we can find two different climates due to its location betweenthe Central System and the Tagus Valley.
• Central System - Mountainous Climate: It is located in the northern area of Madrid, in the Somosierra and Guadarramasystems. Temperatures of this climate are very cold in winter and warm during summertime and rainfall is abundant – over 1,500mm/year.
• Tagus River – ContinentalMediterranean Climate: it affects to the rest of the region of Madrid. This climate is due to the altitude and location of the mountains that avoid the humid maritimemasses of air to reach the east side of the mountains. Because of this, winters are cold with temperatures lower than 8ºC with frequent frost. On the other side,summers are very hot, with temperatures higher than 24ºC that can reach easily 35ºC.

In general, temperatures downtown are higher also due to the action of athermal anticyclone that makes the urban heat island appears, this heat island is a situation that occurs in big cities and it consists of a rapid increase of thetemperatures from the suburbs to the center.
In Madrid, the rainiest epoch is spring followed by autumn. The reason is the arrival of polar maritime air masses coming fromthe polar front. The Azores anticyclone predominates in summer, causing a dry, warm, sunny weather. In winter, it appears some thermal anticyclones that provoke coldsunny weather with intense fog. The fact of having the sea far link to the barrier effect of the mountains makes the cold drop not too important in the region.