Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

SPAIN EXPLAINED

When do the clocks change in Spain in 2024?

Find out when the clocks next change in Spain so you can be prepared.

Published: 22 March 2024 15:02 CET
When do the clocks change in Spain in 2024?
When do the clocks change in Spain? Photo: Aphiwat chuangchoem / Pexels

Each year the clocks change twice in Spain, once during spring and the other during autumn. The clocks either move forward or back one hour in March and October, so that we can benefit from lighter mornings during the shorter darker days of the year and lighter evenings during the longer days. 

The next change will happen this March, when we move to what we know as ‘daylight saving time’. This practice is carried out by most European countries, as well as the US and Canada. 

In 2024, daylight saving time begins on the last Sunday of March. This means that we will have to bring the time forward one hour during the early morning hours from this Saturday, March 30th to Sunday, March 31st. 

Like every year, this summer time change takes place at 2am, so that at this time it moves directly to 3am. This means that particular day will only be 23 hours long and we will lose one hour. 

In the case of the Canary Islands, which are one hour behind peninsular Spain, the change will occur on the same date, so when it gets to 2am there, it will also move directly to 3am. 

The change signifies that we have entered what’s known as ‘summer time’, even though it’s not officially summer for another few months. It simply means that we can enjoy longer days with more natural light as it gets warmer and save on energy too. 

In 2019, the European Parliament suggested time changes should be scrapped, but as of yet nothing has been decided upon. In fact, the Spanish government has confirmed that the clocks will continue changing here until at least 2026, which it published in its official state bulletin (BOE).

All the confirmed dates of clock changes up until 2026 are:

Sunday March 31st 2024

Sunday October 27th 2024

Sunday March 30th 2025

Sunday October 26th 2025

Sunday March 29th 2026

Sunday October 25th 2026

Daylight saving time has been under constant debate, however, as many do not see it as necessary. During the EU consultation in 2018, people overwhelmingly said they wanted to stop moving the clocks backward and forwards every six months – 84 percent of respondents agreed with the proposal.  

READ ALSO: Why Spain is still in the wrong time zone because of Hitler

Spain is on Central European Time, the same as 17 different member states, but in reality, we should be in the same zone as the UK and Portugal, one hour behind. The country has in fact been in the wrong time zone for the last 84 years. 

In 1940, Franco decided to show his support for Hitler by agreeing to put Spain’s clocks forward by an hour in an act of solidarity with Hitler and Nazi Germany. 

Spain has remained in the Central European Time zone ever since, in line with countries as far east as Poland. This means that Madrid currently has the same time as Warsaw in Poland 2,290km away but is one hour ahead of Lisbon which is only 502 km away. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

WEATHER

Does Spain use cloud seeding?

Some voices online blamed cloud seeding for flash flooding in Dubai recently. Does Spain use this weather modification technique and is it being harnessed as a means of combatting severe drought in the country?

Published: 30 April 2024 11:06 CEST
Does Spain use cloud seeding?

The internet was awash with images of dramatic flooding in the UAE two weeks ago, in which parts of the country saw more rainfall in a single day than it usually does in an entire year on average.

The UEA government stated that it was the most rainfall the country had seen in 75 years and an incredible 10 inches of rain fell in the city of Al Ain.

Predictably, the freak weather event sparked fierce internet debate about the causes and consequences among climate change activists and climate change sceptics. The cause, in particular, struck a chord with certain subsections of the internet and many were asking the same question: did ‘cloud seeding’ cause this biblical downpour?

But what exactly is cloud seeding? Does Spain use it? And with the country’s ongoing drought conditions, should it be using it?

What is cloud seeding?

According to the Desert Research Institute: “Cloud seeding is a weather modification technique that improves a cloud’s ability to produce rain or snow by introducing tiny ice nuclei into certain types of subfreezing clouds. These nuclei provide a base for snowflakes to form. After cloud seeding takes place, the newly formed snowflakes quickly grow and fall from the clouds back to the surface of the Earth, increasing snowpack and streamflow.”

Cloud seeing is used by countries around the world, not only in the Middle East but in China and the U.S, usually in areas suffering drought concerns. The process can be done from the ground, with generators, or from above with planes.

Does Spain use cloud seeding?

Sort of, but on a far smaller scale and not in the same way other countries do. In places like China and the U.S, where large swathes of the country are at risk of drought, cloud seeding is used to help replenish rivers and reservoirs and implemented on an industrial scale.

In Spain, however, the technique has been for a much more specific (and small scale) reason: to avoid hailstorms that can destroy crops.

This has mostly been used in the regions of Madrid and Aragón historically.

But cloud seeding isn’t something new and innovative, despite how futuristic it might seem. In fact, Spain has a pretty long history when it comes to weather manipulation techniques. Between 1979 and 1981, the first attempts to stimulate rainfall took place in Spain, coordinated by the World Meteorological Organisation.

“In 1979, in Valladolid, different techniques were developed to observe the local clouds but they did not meet any possible conditions for cloud seeding experiments. The project came to a standstill,” José Luis Sánchez, professor of Applied Physics at the University of León, told La Vanguardia.

This sort of cloud seeding, as used abroad, doesn’t really happen in Spain anymore. Rather, when it’s used it’s done to protect crops on a local level. Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge are responsible for authorising cloud seeding, but there are only a handful of current authorisations to combat hail, such as the one granted to the Madrid’s Agricultural Chamber combat hail in the south-east of the region.

As of 2024, it is believed that no regions have requested cloud seeding (whether by generator or plane) to ‘produce’ more rain.

So, cloud seeding isn’t currently used like it is in countries such as the U.S., China, and the UAE. But should it, and could it solve the drought issue in Spain?

An aircraft technician inspects a plane’s wing mounted with burn-in silver iodide (dry ice) flare racks. (Photo by Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP)

Spain’s drought conditions

Spain has been suffering drought conditions for several years now. Last year the government announced a multi-billion dollar package to combat the drought conditions, and several regions of Spain have brought in water restrictions to try and maintain dwindling reservoir reserves. 

READ ALSO:

At times in Spain in recent years it has felt as though another temperature or minimum rainfall record is broken every other day. The drought conditions are particularly bad in the southern region of Andalusia and Catalonia, where, despite heavy rain over Easter, reservoirs in the region are at just 18 percent capacity, the lowest level in the country.

So, could cloud seeding be used in Spain to help alleviate some of the drought conditions? Yes and no. Seeding is not the only answer to drought, but could theoretically be used as one option among many.

“It’s just another tool in the box,” Mikel Eytel, a water resources specialist with the Colorado River District, told Yale Environment 360 magazine: “It’s not the panacea that some people think it is.”

This is essentially because cloud seeding does not actually produce more rain, rather it stimulates water vapour already present in clouds to condense and fall faster. For there to be a significant amount of rainfall, the air needs significant levels of moisture.

That is to say, using cloud seeing to try and stimulate more rain may help Spain’s drought conditions in a small way, but the difference would be marginal.

“It’s not as simple and may not be as promising as people would like,” respected cloud physicist Professor William R. Cotton, wrote in The Conversation. 

“Experiments that produce snow or rain require the right type of clouds with sufficient moisture and the right temperature and wind conditions. The percentage increases are small and it is difficult to know when the snow or rain fell naturally and when it was triggered by seeding.”

SHOW COMMENTS