Aragonese Climate. Natural areas in Aragon. Pyrenees, Moncayo, Iberian system, mountains, rivers. Aragon.

One more example of the variability of the physical environment conditions present in the Community is the climate. Its situation in the Iberian Peninsula, the mountain chains - Pyrenees and Iberian System -, which frame it and the altitude of the different zones originate different climates or microclimates, since they are present from the alpine domain to the sub-desert.
The most widespread domain is the dry continental Mediterranean.

The climate of each place is determined by temperature, rainfall and wind.

The temperature

The morphological structure and the situation in the center of the Ebro depression are the factors that condition temperatures in the Aragonese region. The shelter of the Pyrenees and the Iberian system and the topography of the bucket suggest high temperatures although variations in altitude and nuances in the continental region determine a great diversity of thermal regimes. The map of isotherms is organized with respect to the axis of the Ebro in a very simple way. The central lands of the valley constitute the warmest level, from which temperatures rapidly degrade towards the Pyrenees and towards the Iberian system. They also show a positive thermal displacement from W to E. The average annual gradient ranges from 15º in the eastern part of the bucket to less than 7º in the axial pyrenees.

The Ebro depression, after the Guadalquivir basin, is considered the warmest region of the Peninsula. The isotherm of the 22nd in the months of July and August extends from the Pyrenean Somontans to the Iberian Cordillera, penetrating the Depression of Calatayud Daroca.
Below 18º there are only the enclaves of Gúdar, Albarracín, Javalambre, Moncayo and the Sierras Interiors of the Pyrenees mountain range. July is the hottest month, although with just a degree of difference on average with August. The average maximum temperatures often reach 35º in the center of the depression, sometimes reaching 40º. Such a type of summer is explained, in large part, by the arrangement of the closed tray and the presence of the Azores anticyclone for long periods with the progressive heating of the indoor air for repeated days.

Its duration is closely linked to its altitude. Thus, in the Ebro axis, from the middle of May to the end of September, the average temperature is over 17º, exceeding 22º during the months of July and August. Above 1,000 m, however, summer is reduced to these months and above 1,400 m. its duration does not exceed a couple of weeks.

An important element to review is the heat waves that sometimes occur during the summer and that causes temperatures to reach 38º and 44º highs and 22º lows.
The most favorable situation for these invasions occurs when the Peninsula is subjected to dry and reheated air from the European continent on one hand, dehydrated by the fohn effect when crossing the Pyrenees and on the other hand to a southern air dry and overheated in the interior areas.

Rainfall

Its distinctive characteristics are its scarcity, its interannual irregularity and its unequal distribution throughout the year. Its general distribution is clearly dependent on the relief, as the isoyets are arranged in decreasing parallel lines with the contours from the mountainous margins to the center of the depression. In the center of Aragon they are clearly less than 400 mm reaching 2,000 mm at the best exposed peaks. Most of the surface of the community is below 500 mm, exceeding this figure up to 700 mm, Pyrenean somontans and certain points of the Iberian mountain range.

Its annual distribution indicates that rainfall occurs in a short period of time during spring and autumn, separated by two minimums in summer and winter.
 In the three spring months, 25% to 30% of the annual total is recorded, mainly in May and March. In June, rainfall is usually recorded due to the delay of the maximum of May, descending in the months of July and August, with which a long drought begins only interrupted by stormy activity. The analysis of this activity is of great interest when studying forest fires, since storms, usually dry, are the cause of a large number of forest fires. The average number of storm days in the summer, deduced from the 1949 series of years 73, it offers a value of about 60 days for each of the three provinces. The trajectories of the stormy nuclei are usually SW-NE, although in the eastern areas the penetration of eastern storms can be observed, caused by cold drops on the Gulf of Lion.

The wind

The winds that generally dominate in Aragon are the deer or west wind with WNW direction and the shame or lift with ESE direction.

The deer is a dry wind that has gusts that sometimes exceed 100 km/h, cold in winter and dry in summer. The maximum frequency of these winds is recorded in the month of January followed by the months of February, December and in the spring.

The embarrassment is a dry, warm and stifling wind in summer and soft, warm and humid during the equinoxes. It is not as constant as the deer and is often interrupted by periods of calm and even, especially at dusk, by a weak flow of the NW.

Three climatic zones

In the Aragonese territory we can distinguish three clearly differentiated climatic zones:

1. Continentalized Mediterranean climate.

   On the banks of the Ebro the thermal contrasts between winter and summer are very large and, in addition, rainfall is scarce. But as we move away from the river and enter the Somontans, the weather softens, the temperatures are not so extreme and it rains more. The climate also graduates from west to east: the more towards Catalonia, the less rainfall and slight increase in temperatures.

2. Mountain weather.

   The people of the Pyrenean and Iberian mountain ranges withstand low temperatures - up to -30ºC on occasion - in the long winters. The short summers are mild, although the altitude of the different regions and their orientation to the north or south makes the meteorology of these mountains not uniform.

3. Continental climate.

   To the depression Calatayud-Daroca-Teruel, encased between mountains by the west and the east, the humid Atlantic or Mediterranean winds do not arrive. Despite being a high area, between 600 and 900 m altitude, it rains very little. The thermal contrasts are very high, with a hot summer and a very cold winter, with temperatures in Calamocha and Daroca that on some winter days mark the minimum of the Iberian Peninsula.



Also Aragon enjoys a diverse and varied Nature where passing by plants, animals, Geology, or landscapes we can arrive at a fantastic bestiary that lives in its monuments.

The information will not be complete without a stroll by its three provinces, with shutdown in some of its spectacular landscapes like Ordesa, the Moncayo, Monegros or by opposition the Ebro.

Also you can dedicarte to the intangible ones: from the legend compilation that also does to universal Aragon.