Once Every 5 Years… Snow in Madrid
by Ben Curtis
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!
Posted: January 9th, 2009 under Living in Spain.
Comments: 14
Comments
Comment from jules
Time: January 9, 2009, 6:48 pm
.. a wondrous winterscape with the fallen angel in the background
Comment from Jambro
Time: January 9, 2009, 7:15 pm
I love looking at the wintry snow in Madrid. I wish I was there.
Comment from Anne-Marie
Time: January 9, 2009, 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…
Comment from Steve
Time: January 9, 2009, 9:52 pm
That’s beautiful. Lately, New England’s been buried under several feet of ice without power. 
But Madrid sure looks lovely.
Comment from Maria S.
Time: January 9, 2009, 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.
Comment from Cardamom
Time: January 9, 2009, 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.
Comment from Steve
Time: January 10, 2009, 4:58 am
Quick follow-up comment -
While I was searching the ‘net today, I stumbled upon this photo on the Real Madrid site.
Seems like everyone is enjoying the snow, eh?
Comment from Katie
Time: January 10, 2009, 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…).
Comment from Madrid Guide Spain
Time: January 10, 2009, 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!
Comment from Edith
Time: January 11, 2009, 3:07 am
Caos y belleza - un reportaje de Informe Semanal sobre el invierno en España:
Comment from James
Time: January 13, 2009, 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.
Comment from PattyN
Time: January 14, 2009, 7:06 pm
Fabulous photos, Ben!!! Thanks so much for sharing.
Comment from Dean Hunt
Time: January 14, 2009, 7:23 pm
Lived there for 5 years, never saw a single flake.
I take full blame for the 5 year snow drought.
Dean
Comment from Bella
Time: January 23, 2009, 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!
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