Barcelona weather: storms end Catalonia's heatwave

According to El Nacional.cat, the weather in Catalonia turns this Monday 24 August 2026: storms are expected to shift eastward from dusk, hitting mainly the comarques of Lleida and central Catalonia, with showers possible along the Barcelona coast and the Empordà late at night, and fresh storms brewing at dawn over the Costa Brava. The same outlet, quoting the Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya (Meteocat), reports an alert for rainfall topping 20 mm in 30 minutes (danger level 3 out of 6), with a risk of sleet in the Ponent, the western part of the region.

Tutiempo.net, aggregating AEMET forecasts, backs up that picture and adds numbers of its own: yellow-level warnings for the day, strong storms from midday across Catalonia and Aragón, up to 20 mm of rain per hour in the province of Barcelona and as much as 60 mm in 12 hours in the Pyrenees, with likely hail and strong gusts. El Nacional.cat also notes that Girona should still reach around 35°C on Monday before temperatures drop, with a new heat spike pencilled in for Thursday 27 August and a fresh cooldown the following weekend. One striking figure only Meteocat provides, relayed by El Nacional.cat: more than 150 litres of water per square metre fell last Saturday, 22 August, in the Baix Penedès.

Why the sudden interest? Because the break follows an exceptional heat spell. Moncloa.com, citing Meteocat's reference station Can Bruixa, reports that Barcelona logged a record 52 consecutive tropical nights (when the temperature never dips below 25°C), beating the 51-night mark set in 2003. Note that this figure is not settled: other outlets have published different counts for the same stretch, so treat the exact number with care until Meteocat's raw readings are checked directly.

The turn is echoed across the Spanish press. La Razón headlined on 22 August that the heat was easing in Barcelona, with rain and storms billed for the weekend of 22 and 23 August (we could only read the headline, as the full page would not load). Mundo Deportivo, for its part, headlined this Monday that forecasters agree rain returns to Barcelona from a specific hour, though we could not verify that time or its figures, the page being technically inaccessible during our search. Between record tropical nights and a stormy reset, it is little surprise that Barcelona's forecast is climbing Google Trends across Spain today.

Sources : El Nacional.cat, Meteocat, Tutiempo.net, AEMET, Moncloa.com, La Razón, Mundo Deportivo, Google Trends.