Climate - Girona (Catalonia)

The climate of Girona (Gerona in Spanish) is transitional Mediterranean. Winters are relatively mild and rainy, while summers are hot and sunny.
The city is located in the north-east of Spain and Catalonia, about 25 km (15 mi) from the sea. The coast of the province of Girona is called "Costa Brava".
The distance from the sea, although not great, makes the climate a little more continental than on the coast, moreover, due to the position to the north, near the border with France, the city is more exposed to cold waves from November to March compared to Barcelona, and the rains are also more frequent.
The average temperature of the coldest month (January) is of 7 °C (45 °F), that of the warmest months (July, August) is of 23.5 °C (74 °F). Here are the average temperatures.

Precipitation amounts to 720 millimeters (28.3 inches) per year: so, it is at an intermediate level. It ranges from 30 mm (1.2 in) in the driest month (July) to 90 mm (3.5 in) in the wettest (October). Here is the average precipitation.

Winter, from December to February, is quite mild, with sunny days, but also rainy periods. Average temperatures are not very low, but at night it gets cold, and in periods of good weather, fog can form.
Also, there may sometimes be very cold periods, and occasionally it can even snow.
On the coldest nights of the year, the temperature generally drops to -5/-6 °C (21/23 °F), but during the coldest winters it can drop to lower values. In January 1985, it dropped to -13 °C (8.5 °F), while from 2000 to 2020, it dropped to -11 °C (12 °F) in January 2005, and to -8 °C (17.5 °F) in December 2001 and in February 2012.

The summer, from June to August, is hot and sunny, with a few thunderstorms coming from the Pyrenees. We cannot exclude that some Atlantic disturbances, able to bring a bit of rain, can affect this area also in this season, more likely in June and in the second half of August.
There may be very hot periods, in which the temperature can reach 38/40 °C (100/104 °F). The extreme maximum is 43 °C (109.5 °F), recorded at the end of June 2019. In August 2003 and July 2015, the temperature had reached 41 °C (106 °F).



On average, there are around 2,330 sunshine hours per year. Thus, the sun shines for an acceptable number of hours, but it does not shine as often as in central-southern Spain. Here are the average sunshine hours per day.

On the Costa Brava, the sea temperature, still very cool in June, reaches 25 °C (77 °F) in August, while in July, it is still around 23 °C (73 °F), so it's a little cooler, but overall acceptable for swimming. Here are the average sea temperatures in Lloret de Mar.

Best Time

The best times to visit Girona are from mid-May to mid-June and from mid-September to mid-October. The summer is the driest and sunniest season, but sometimes it gets very hot.
However, the summer is the best season to go to the beach on the Costa Brava (with a preference for the months of July and August, since the sea is still cool in June), and also to visit the Pyrenean area.

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