'Regina' arrives, bringing widespread rain and mud across Catalonia

BarcelonaLast week's anticyclone was a mirage. After an exceptionally rainy winter, this first week of March, and of meteorological spring, has brought another turn for the worse, and a severe one at that. A pocket of cold air located between the south of the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa has generated a new low-pressure system, named... Regina by the Portuguese meteorological agency. Initially, it will affect the Canary Islands and the Gulf of Cádiz area, and in our region, for the time being, it will bring clouds, a lot of suspended dust, some showers or drizzles accompanied by mud, maritime winds, and rough seas.

But the storm will gradually move northward, and from Thursday onwards, for practically the rest of the week, it will affect us directly, bringing widespread and significant rainfall to Catalonia. We will experience another storm – the third in the last three months – with substantial accumulations that could exceed 100 or 150 liters per square meter in some areas, accompanied by strong winds and rough seas along the coast. This is the tenth major storm to hit our region since the beginning of the year, and the seventeenth since the start of the storm season last September. Although almost half the season remains, only four names are left to complete the list of major storms and cut-off lows. The ground is very saturated, and the water reserves in the internal basins are practically full, at around 93%. Given these forecasts, it is likely that some reservoirs will have to reopen their floodgates to absorb the additional rainfall.

First changes Tuesday and Wednesday

The first changes began to arrive in the last few hours. The storm is currently located further south of the Gulf of Cádiz and is already pushing southerly winds laden with moisture and a lot of suspended dust. This means that Tuesday will be quite overcast and hazy, with the first light and scattered showers or drizzles in Catalonia and the Valencian Community. These showers will be accompanied by mud due to the dust influx from North Africa. Therefore, even a little rain will leave everything dirty. It's a bad week to wash the car or hang clean laundry outside. All of this will be accompanied by easterly and northeasterly winds that will strengthen along the coast, making for increasingly rough seas. This scenario will also continue into Wednesday, a day of relative calm before the most significant changes. Meteocat has already issued alerts for strong winds in coastal areas, especially around Barcelona and Tarragona, as well as for high waves. In the coming days, winds could reach gusts of over 60 or 70 km/h along the coast, with waves locally exceeding 2.5 or 3 meters in height.

Lifted from Thursday

The storm will slowly move north, and from Thursday onwards it will affect us fully. The easterly wind will strengthen and the rain will become widespread. It will move inland from the sea and affect every region. This easterly wind will continue into Friday and the weekend, with further precipitation. We are talking about almost four days of rain that will especially affect the coastal and pre-coastal regions, the northeast, the Pre-Pyrenees, and the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. With current forecasts, many areas will accumulate more than 50 or 100 liters per square meter, but in regions like Ripollès, Garrotxa, Alt Empordà, Roussillon, Vallespir, and Conflent, rainfall could locally exceed 150 or 200 liters per square meter. The rain will also reach the Valencian Community and, to a lesser extent, the Balearic Islands.

In the eastern Pyrenees, snowfall could be very significant, although only at very high elevations. It will snow mainly above 2,000 meters, although the snow level will drop slightly from Friday onwards. Accumulations will easily exceed 50 centimeters at the highest points on the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. But in the highest mountains of eastern Ripollès and Conflent, accumulations of new snow could again exceed one meter, which would complete a record-breaking ski season.

The wettest winter in the last 30 years

This episode comes after an exceptionally rainy and snowy winter, a time when it is usually dry in our region. According to the latest climate report from Meteocat, published this Tuesday, the meteorological winter of 2025-2026—comprising the entire months of December, January, and February—has been the wettest in the last 30 years in Catalonia. We have to go back to the winter of 1995-1996 to find one this rainy. The constant influx of storms and pockets of cold air has brought exceptional rainfall, while the typical anticyclones for this time of year have been located at more northerly latitudes. An atypical situation for winter. In some cases, rainfall totals have been extraordinary. Notable rainfall totals include 657 l/m² accumulated in the last three months in Els Ports Natural Park (Baix Ebre), 591 l/m² at the Darnius-Boadella reservoir (Alt Empordà), and 583 l/m² at Puig Sesolles (1,668 m, Vallès Oriental). Regarding the two oldest and most historically significant weather stations, the Ebro station experienced its third wettest winter in its 121-year record, while the Fabra Observatory's winter of 2025-2026 was the fifth wettest in a 113-year series. The Pyrenees also experienced an exceptionally snowy winter, with accumulations of two to three meters at higher elevations. The record rainfall of 144 cm at the end of January was particularly noteworthy at the Núria station (1,971 m, Ripollès), a figure never before reached in 26 years of records. Storms also brought episodes of strong winds, especially in February, with gusts exceeding 150 km/h in high-altitude areas and 100 km/h in densely populated areas, causing numerous incidents. In some cases, the wind had not blown with such force since 2009. Overall, it has been a warm winter with above-average temperatures, especially minimums. During February, heat records for the month were broken, both for minimum and maximum temperatures, at some Meteocat stations with over twenty years of data.