The meteorological winter started on December 1. In many regions, even in winter, you still have a chance of pleasant temperatures in Spain. However, it can also get very cold in several places in Spain. It is not for nothing that Spain has an ‘ice triangle’, which also includes the coldest villages in Spain.
Cold years were 2021, the year of Filomena, and 1963, but the official cold record dates from even earlier. The coldest places on the Spanish mainland are not always the places where the lowest recorded extremes have been measured. The coldest place has the lowest average maximum and minimum temperatures over the whole year. In the mountain ranges in the north of the peninsula, there are villages where the annual average does not exceed 7 ºC, with short, cool summers.
Spain’s coldest villages in the ice triangle
Some of the villages with the harshest winters are located in the so-called ice triangle. This area was so named by journalist and science writer Vicente Aupí in his book “El triángulo de hielo”. This triangle between Molina de Aragón, Teruel, and Daroca has experienced some of the harshest winters in Spain in recent centuries.
The most recent cold episode came after storm Filomena and record snowfall in areas in the central and northeastern interior. According to Aupí, in January 2021, minimum temperatures dropped below -25 ºC in the ice triangle: to -27 ºC in Villarquemado (Teruel) and -26.5 ºC in Torremocha del Jiloca (Teruel).
Cold record in inhabited area
At the moment, the cold record in a populated area is held by the city of Fuentes Claras (Teruel). In the freezing early morning of December 17, 1963, temperatures in this place reached -30 ºC. The area is located at an altitude of 930 metres above sea level, far from the influence of the sea.
Official record
For the official record in Spain, we go back to February 1956. On February 2 of that year, an AEMET station measured -32 ºC near Lake Gento (Lleida Pyrenees). Although this is still the official absolute cold record in Spain, even lower values have recently been measured by reliable stations.