Arctic blast to bring chilly nights to Spain in mid-May with yellow alerts for high winds – Here’s where

Unseasonably arctic air masses from near Greenland are currently racing towards the Iberian Peninsula at high speed and are due to bring with them a dramatic weather transformation starting Thursday.

Cold air mass to transform weather Across Iberian Peninsula

Temperatures are predicted to fall sharply on Thursday in the northern third and interior zones, where declines turn pronounced quickly. The drop will be so steep that freezing air will blow into southern, eastern and coastal areas.

Drops grow steeper Friday and Saturday with values 8 to 13 degrees Celsius below seasonal averages over broad areas of Spain. Early mornings adopt wintry traits in mid-May, with lows near zero or negative in mountain districts of the northern half.

Freezing lows expected in northern and interior Spain

🌡️↘️ En los próximos días continuará en España el ambiente frío para la época, intensificándose el viernes.

⬆️ La semana próxima, sin embargo, las temperaturas subirán progresivamente y probablemente serán altas para mayo. Se superarán 30-32 ºC en zonas del nordeste y mitad sur. pic.twitter.com/fl6d2mJBI2

— AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) May 13, 2026

Peak cold strikes during Saturday morning when the thermal plunge bottoms out in large interior peninsular areas. Partially clear skies and calmer winds encourage intense overnight cooling that will deliver surprisingly wintry readings. Frosts will reappear across inland locations, particularly in higher spots where dawn brings sub-zero figures unusually late in spring for recent years.

Afternoons continue to be very cool for the time of year even though temperatures recover slightly from earlier hours. Still, large parts of inland Spain could stay below 15 degrees Celsius, resulting in an autumn-like atmosphere across many areas in the south and east.

Strong coastal winds bring yellow warnings in Andalucia

May reaches its halfway point with variable and unsettled patterns once more. Scattered weak showers are expected to remain very isolated in Andalucia throughout the Costa del Sol and Almeria areas; however, cooler temperatures and powerful coastal gusts dominate the scene. AEMET, the State Meteorological Agency has issued yellow alerts in three provinces of the region.

Warnings cover westerly and south-westerly winds reaching 50 to 60 kilometres per hour between 4am and 10pm on Friday the 15th across the full coastal band from Estepona to Murcia. Strong westerlies feature heavily on the Mediterranean coast by late week, with intense gusts activating coastal alerts in Granada and Almeria, where speeds attain 70 kilometres per hour. Forecasts point to mostly clear skies that increase to cloudy with medium clouds inland and weak to moderate showers in the eastern third more probable over the Sierras. Maximum afternoon temperatures undergo a general reduction, oscillating between 21 degrees in Jaen and 26 in Malaga or Seville, the warmest in the country.

Isolated storms and drizzle are the outlook for the Balearic Islands on Friday and early Saturday, clearing up by Sunday.