Not often this wonderful meteorological miracle comes to pass, when Madrid’s difficult micro-climate allows the snow that’s been falling on the nearby sierras to creep within the city limits.
The city grinds to a halt in surprise of course, and it never lasts more than 24 hours, but I made sure to get a quick morning walk in the Retiro, with many of the other city’s photographers!
jules
9 Jan 09 at 6:48 pm
.. a wondrous winterscape with the fallen angel in the background
Jambro
9 Jan 09 at 7:15 pm
I love looking at the wintry snow in Madrid. I wish I was there.
Anne-Marie
9 Jan 09 at 9:11 pm
You like snow? Come to Montreal from December to March!! We get about 20 cm every 3 weeks! $#@!*&_
Nonetheless… I snow is exotic where its not supposed to be…
Steve
9 Jan 09 at 9:52 pm
That’s beautiful. Lately, New England’s been buried under several feet of ice without power.
But Madrid sure looks lovely.
Maria S.
9 Jan 09 at 11:15 pm
I love these kind of pictures. We have freezing temps here in Germany, but not that much fresh snow.
I have just returned from a “Schnitzelbar” where I watched the weather forecast and how some German towns got innovative by flooding their tennis courts to turn them into ice rinks.
We have got lots of ice and people seem to be outdoors more so than ever.
It would be nice to be in Madrid to see what you have.
Cardamom
9 Jan 09 at 11:36 pm
Don’t know If it’s global warming or what, but the south east USA where I live hasn’t seen snow in 10 years…… Last Christmas while the rest of the country was frozen solid we were enjoying spring like weather, max temp in the early twenties or so.
Steve
10 Jan 09 at 4:58 am
Quick follow-up comment –
While I was searching the ‘net today, I stumbled upon this photo on the Real Madrid site.
http://www.realmadrid.com/cs/Satellite/en/1202759113938/noticia/Noticia/The_Bernabeu_as_white_as_ever.htm
Seems like everyone is enjoying the snow, eh?
Katie
10 Jan 09 at 3:12 pm
lovely photos, ben, thanks. one of the nicest things about yesterday was that on the street so many people were smiling!
the worst thing was that, in true madrileño fashion, many opted to arm themselves with an umbrella to ward off the snow (and anyone daring to walk near them…).
Madrid Guide Spain
10 Jan 09 at 8:06 pm
Great pic! It was my intention to get some pgotos of the snow yesterday for my site http://www.madrid.-guide-spain.com but alas the day job saw me spending an hour and a half getting home from work in San Fernando.
Its amazing how totally unprepared the city was for the snowfall with just 5cm´s of snow causing over 300km of traffic hold ups and the closure of the international airport.
I must admit I have to drive past the airport (I work in aviation) and seeing the airaft doing “go arounds” at 0745 made me wonder if the day was going to go from bad to worse. Hey, at least you got your photo!
Edith
11 Jan 09 at 3:07 am
Caos y belleza – un reportaje de Informe Semanal sobre el invierno en España:
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/index.html#379424
James
13 Jan 09 at 1:20 pm
Great photos Ben.
We were going back to the US that day from Bilbao and luckily they closed Barajas before we took off so we got rerouted through Paris and didn’t wind up stuck in Madrid all weekend. We heard the airport was freezing cold too.
We did spend about 12 hours in Barajas on the way over though because of the Iberia pilot and air traffic controller slowdowns.
PattyN
14 Jan 09 at 7:06 pm
Fabulous photos, Ben!!! Thanks so much for sharing.
Dean Hunt
14 Jan 09 at 7:23 pm
Lived there for 5 years, never saw a single flake.
I take full blame for the 5 year snow drought.
Dean
Bella
23 Jan 09 at 2:29 am
Lovely surprise to come back to after Christmas! I came back on Thurs 8th Jan and the snow fell the next day! They closed the aiport! Lucky I came back when I did! I loved the snow and was able to take a few photos of my barrio myself! Everyone was out taking photos. It was very pretty. In some places I saw it turned to ice and stayed about a week, not in my area though.. only 24 hours!