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Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon, sits in the middle of the Ebro valley in northeastern Spain, on a dry plain between the Pyrenees and the Iberian System mountains at approximately 41.65°N, 0.88°W. Sheltered from both Atlantic and Mediterranean moisture, it has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) — hot, dry summers and cold winters — with low rainfall and the famous cierzo wind.
Summer, from June to September, is hot and very dry, with July the warmest month — average highs around 33–34°C — and heatwaves that can exceed 40°C on the sun-baked Ebro plain. Rain is scarce, arriving mainly as rare, sometimes violent thunderstorms; the low humidity makes the heat dry, and nights cool more than on the coast.
Winter, from December to February, is cold and dry, with January the coolest month — average highs around 10–11°C and lows near 1–2°C, with frost frequent on clear nights. Snow is uncommon. The season is marked by persistent fog trapped in the valley during still spells, and by the cierzo, a cold, dry northwesterly wind that scours the valley and sharpens the chill.
Zaragoza is very dry, receiving only around 320–350 mm of rain a year — semi-desert levels — because the surrounding mountains block moisture from both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean; what falls comes mainly in spring and autumn, with a nearly rainless summer. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.
Zaragoza's defining feature is the cierzo, a cold, dry, sometimes fierce northwesterly wind that funnels down the Ebro valley, clearing fog and haze but biting hard in winter. The surrounding mountains cast a double rain shadow that makes the middle Ebro one of the driest parts of Spain — arid enough, in nearby Los Monegros, to have stood in for the American West in spaghetti Western films.
To follow any single measurement in Zaragoza more closely, use our live instruments: the online barometer for atmospheric pressure, the thermometer for temperature, the hygrometer for humidity, the anemometer for wind speed, the wind vane for wind direction, and the rain gauge for rainfall.