Lorraine Williamson
Spain’s unusually stormy season has pushed AEMET storm names close to the end of the official list months before the naming period is due to finish. After a run of high-impact systems through autumn and winter, only four names remain on the published 2025-26 sequence.
That may sound like a quirky meteorological footnote. In reality, it says something bigger about the kind of season Spain has been living through. Storm after storm has swept across the country, bringing heavy rain, strong winds and repeated disruption, while keeping weather warnings firmly in the headlines.
Only four names remain on the official list
According to AEMET’s official 2025-26 naming page, the latest named system on the list was Regina, added on 1 March 2026. That means the season has already reached the 17th name out of 21, leaving only Samuel, Therese, Vítor, and Wilma still available on the current list. Cadena SER, citing AEMET, reported on Friday that a reserve list is ready in case those names are used up before the season ends on 31 August 2026.
Why AEMET names storms in the first place
The pace is what makes this stand out. AEMET and its European partners assign names only to high-impact storms and, more recently, certain high-impact DANAs. These are not names given to every low-pressure system on the map. They are reserved for events expected to trigger orange or red warnings for wind, rain or snow, with the aim of making risk communication clearer and helping the public take them seriously.
That threshold matters. It means Spain has not simply had a run of unsettled days. It has had a season in which severe weather has arrived often enough, and with enough force, to burn through the naming list at unusual speed. Cadena SER described the progression this winter as unusually fast, with one storm following another week after week.
The naming system itself is international. Spain’s AEMET is part of the South-west Group, alongside the meteorological services of Portugal, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Andorra. The first service to identify a high-impact storm affecting the group gets to assign the next name on the shared alphabetical list.
What this says about Spain’s weather this year
This season’s list began with Alice and runs through to Wilma. AEMET’s published page shows that names from Pedro to Regina were used in February and early March, underlining how quickly the sequence has moved in recent weeks.
Weather experts are careful not to overclaim. AEMET spokesperson Rubén del Campo told Cadena SER that the current run of storms has been unusual and intense, but not necessarily without precedent in Spain’s climate record. He noted that long dry spells in Spain often end with periods of above-normal rainfall. At the same time, he also pointed to the possibility that warmer seas and a warmer atmosphere may be helping to intensify some rainfall events.
That is where the story becomes more than a weather curiosity. Spain has spent months moving between drought concerns, water relief, and repeated flood risk. Reservoirs have recovered in many areas, but the cost has been a winter dominated by warnings, disruption, and, in some cases, severe local impacts. The shrinking storm-name list has become a visible symbol of that broader pattern.
For readers, the practical point is simple. When AEMET gives a storm a name, it is because the agency expects conditions serious enough to merit close attention. The fact that the country is already down to its final four names in mid-March is a reminder that Spain’s weather season is far from over.
Why the remaining names matter
If more high-impact systems arrive this spring, AEMET may have to move beyond the published list and activate its backup names. That would not change the weather on the ground, but it would underline just how relentless this season has been. With more than five months still left in the naming cycle, Spain could yet end up rewriting its recent weather record in a way few expected back in September.