Will all the recent rain prevent drought in Spain this summer?

Local Spain

24-03-2025

Several places in Spain experienced a severe drought from 2021 to 2024, including Catalonia, Andalusia and parts of Valencia, with reservoir levels at some of their lowest levels since records began in 1918.
But, after intense flooding in the eastern and southern parts of the country in October last year and three weeks of intense rain and storms across Spain in March 2025 - how are the levels now?
Overall, reservoir levels in Spain have increased by 2,751 cubic hectometres, meaning that the total water reserve in the peninsula's reservoirs has increased by almost five percentage points, to 65.8 percent. This is nine points higher than last year at this time (56.8 percent) and six points above the average water storage over the last ten years (59.2 percent).
Reservoirs specifically used for human consumption and agriculture are currently at 60.8 percent capacity, according to data from the latest Hydrological Bulletin, published by the Ministry for Ecological Transition.
This is 4.1 percentage points higher than the previous week, when reserves have increased by 1,607 cubic hectometers. This means the volume of water in reservoirs for human consumption has reached 23,575 hm³, meaning that in most of Spain there is now much more water stored up than at the same time last year.
It is also 7.5 points better than the average value of the last decade which is 53.3 percent. It's important to note though that the situation is not the same across the whole country. There are areas of Spain, particularly in the southeast, where the reservoirs are still at low levels.
The basins with the lowest water storage relative to their capacity are the Segura basin between Almería and Alicante is only at 14.8 percent capacity, San Clemente in the Guadalquivir is at 10.3 percent capacity and Cuevas de Almanzora is only at 9.3 percent.
Those with the highest capacities are Los Melonares (Guadalquivir) at 100 percent, Villar del Rey (Guadiana) at 100 percent and San Rafael de Navallana (Guadalquivir) at 99.4 percent.
inland basins have reached nearly 700 cubic hectometres.
Medium to long-term picture
However, it's not as simple as a rainy spell refilling reservoirs and ending drought conditions and the water restrictions that come with them.
As noted above, droughts have been a problem in Spain for some years now. This has prompted water restrictions in various parts of the country since 2021, and though you might've thought the recent rainfall meant measures could soon be lifted, experts say it's not quite that simple.
Environmental specialist Miguel Aguado told Spanish news site 20minutos that "We have to get used to restrictions. The water issue is like money: we can only save it when we have it. Therefore, we must not relax at all… At home we should continue to make responsible use of water because, believe it or not these days, we are going to continue to have drought."
This is due to the fact that despite the heavy rainfall in the last few weeks and the DANA downpours of late-2024, if we zoom out and take a medium to long-term view, ministry data reveals a more complicated picture that points to the underlying drought conditions in parts of the country.
Though water levels in reservoirs and river basins have improved, the irregular distribution of rainfall, concentrated in specific areas, means many reservoirs aren't as full as the rain might've suggested.
It's also true that, although March 2025 is already the rainiest in history in Madrid and Extremadura since records began, it has not been so at the national level.
So far in March, Spain has recorded accumulations of 97 l/m2. But in March 2018, for example, it recorded 162 l/m2, and in 2013, 166l/m2, according to Aemet records.
In essence, however many cubic metres of rain have soaked Spain in the last few weeks and months, many reservoirs came into this surprise rainy season with incredibly low reserves due to longer-term drought conditions, and the rain wasn't even distributed anyway.
The Serena reservoir in Badajoz, for example, has still not reached half capacity despite the downpours. It currently has 1,571 cubic hectometres of water, which represents just 48.8 percent of its total capacity. The Segura basin between Almería and Alicante and San Clemente in the Guadalquivir, though somewhat replenished this month, were at critically low levels before.
The main explanation lies in the unequal distribution of rainfall between the different river basins and the areas particularly hit by drought beforehand. Experts point out that rainfall has caused rivers in the Tagus basin, such as the Alberche, the Jarama, the Henares, the Guadarrama, the Manzanares and even the Tagus itself in some areas, to overflow.
However, the Guadiana basin, to which the Serena reservoir belongs, has not received the same amount of rain.
The data confirms this. While the Tagus river basin has gained 835 cubic hectometres in the last week alone — an increase of 7.55 percent that brings the basin to up to 75.04 percent capacity — the Guadiana river basin gained 522 cubic hectometres of water in the same period, a percentage increase of just 5.47 percent, which takes capacity to just 56.35 percent.
As alluded to above, another important factor is the starting point — did the recent heavy rains help reservoirs fill up closer to capacity, or were they simply recouping some of the lost water due to drought conditions?
The Serena reservoir came into the wet period with considerably low levels of capacity, something that has made it difficult for it to exceed the 50 percent mark, even with the recorded rainfall.
This is because, experts say, the size of the reservoir also plays a role. The Serena, which is the largest reservoir in Spain and the third largest in Europe, requires a significantly greater amount of water to reach high capacity percentages compared to other smaller reservoirs that have been refilled more substantially due to the rain in recent weeks.