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Spain is racing through its high-impact storm name list at a pace meteorologists say they have never seen before.

 

Since the start of January, ten named high impact storms have swept across the country in just six weeks. Francis, Goretti, Harry, Ingrid, Joseph, Kristin, Leonardo, Marta, Nils and Oriana have all battered parts of mainland Spain, pushing the official naming system close to the letter O by mid-February.

 

Back on September 1, the Spanish State Meteorological Agency released its seasonal list of 21 storm names, drawn up with weather services from Portugal, France, Andorra, Belgium and Luxembourg. The names are used only for high-impact storms expected to cause significant disruption. No one expected the list to move this quickly.

 

Francisco Martín, a meteorologist at Meteored with more than 30 years of experience, described the situation as “extraordinary”.

 

“No meteorologist can recall a similar episode of ten high impact storms in a row,” he said.

 

Although storms have always affected Spain, naming them only began in the 2017 to 2018 season. Even so, ten in less than two months is, in his words, “not normal” and not something recorded in recent meteorological history.

 

Aemet spokesperson Rubén del Campo agreed, pointing out that ten consecutive storms means one every four or five days.

 

“It’s a pace we haven’t seen before, and it’s not a typical situation at all,” he added.

 

Experts say the main reason is a persistent blocking anticyclone over Greenland and Scandinavia. Normally, Atlantic storms track towards the British Isles. This time, that high pressure system acted like a barrier, diverting weather systems directly towards Spain, Portugal and France. At the same time, the Azores High, which usually helps stabilise Spain’s weather, shifted further south, effectively opening a corridor for storms to roll in one after another.

 

The big question is whether climate change is playing a role. Both Martín and del Campo are cautious, saying formal attribution studies are needed. However, they acknowledge that these storms have been unusually wet and energetic, drawing moisture from warmer tropical and subtropical waters. A warmer ocean means more evaporation, and a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, increasing the potential for intense rainfall.

 

A recent study into Storm Nils by researchers at ClimaMeter suggested that its stronger winds and heavier rain could not be explained by natural variability alone, pointing towards human driven climate change as a key factor.

 

And it may not be over yet. Another storm could arrive midweek and, if classified as high impact, it already has a name waiting: Pedro. The record season so far was 2023 to 2024, which reached the letter R. If this year’s list runs out entirely, new names will simply need to be added.

 

For now, meteorologists say this run of storms is rare, perhaps a once in 30 year episode. What science does suggest, however, is that extreme weather events in Spain are likely to become more frequent and more intense in the years ahead.

 

 

Images: Freepik / Ministry for Ecological Transition