🌧️ This Week in Spain: Rain. Lots of it.

Plus: Madrid is now officially the fourth largest economy in the EU.

Mar 27, 2025

Madrid | Issue #95

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Please let it stop

And the waters prevailed on the earth Spain for 150 days…

This says it all. Source: Guido Cioni, Data Scientist (weather)

Now that 2025’s bizarre Spanish monsoon season has passed and ~~Noah’s ark is back on dry land~~ we can go out to get a proper caña in a park, it seems like it’s time to ask the question that’s on everyone’s mind: how much rain was that?

You are not alone in asking this question. The thing is, because no one can actually visualize water volumes by numbers—like, how much is 1,000 m³ per second (see washed-out bridge story below)?—we’ve all been reduced to making analogies (or are they metaphors?).

We are no exception. In our curiously popular story about this meteorological issue last week, we tried to explain that the 188.2 liters/m2 of rain that fell at the Madrid-Retiro meteorology station during the first 18 days of March converted to about 7½ inches of rain, which, if it were snow, would be about six feet worth 😱.

But now another week has passed. The rain has gone (and if it dares come back, we’ll go up and punch a cloud). So how much of the wet stuff actually fell over that record-breaking, totally unnatural 3+ week stretch? We’ve been cruising the media, and we have some ideas. Or at least some metaphors. Or analogies. Whatever.

City consumption. In the three weeks from March 4-25 (not all of the March Monsoon, mind you), the amount of water in Spain’s reservoirs increased by 7.385 hm³ ⁉️— which is the equivalent of nearly 18 months of urban water usage (household, business and municipal) for all of Spain.
Almost 4 weeks. National weather service AEMET began recording precipitation on Feb. 27 in Zafra (Badajoz) and the rain did not stop until this Sunday or Monday—uninterrupted. Overall, the rainfall in Spain was 3x the usual for that period.
Definitely deeper. Spain’s reservoirs are now 71.19% full according to our fave water-nerd site Embalses.net. That’s up from 57.83% last year. And Andalucía’s drought-stricken Doñana wetlands? They’re almost full.
Record March. 34 of Spain’s 219 weather stations that are at least 25 years old have set March records. Which seems low to us. But the ones that set records? Wow. Puerto de Navacerrada reported 557mm of rain, which is about 22 inches, or in terms of snow…gobs! Luckily it’s a ski area and it’s open! When’s the last time a Madrid ski area was open heading into April?
The British Isles want their rain back. As you can see in the map above 👆 created by data scientist Guido Cioni, Spain’s rain came from somewhere. Specifically, it came from northern Europe and the British Isles—where it only rained 2 out of 60 days in Feb/March, as opposed to 50 of 60 in Spain. Why? An abnormally persistent anticyclone squatted over Northern Europe and forced storms south. Which means we’re “stealing” rain from them. And we’re happy to return it.

So what should you make of this? As you crawl out of your bunker after nearly 28 days of straight rain (28 Days Later, anyone?), you must be asking yourself that same question that Guido Cioni, asked himself: “So, the question arises: is this normal?” he posed (rhetorically) on LinkedIn. His reply? “The answer is simple: absolutely NOT.”

Agreed! Now let’s move on.

More news below. 👇👇

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1. 🌧️ (Not-so) Roman bridge is falling down…

Beyond the deaths and other bad things, the sad news of the ridiculous Noah-era flooding of the last three-plus weeks was the collapse of the “Roman Bridge” in Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) in the early hours of Sunday. The old guy couldn’t handle the surge of the rain-engorged Tagus (Tajo) river, which was flowing at 1,000 m³ per second. That is apparently a lot. At least it sounds like a lot, right?

Cinematic collapse. Locals managed to capture the moment of the collapse with their phones (see video above) and they can be heard screaming and crying over the loss of a monument that has been with their town for centuries.
Tears, gnashing of teeth. The mayor of Talavera de la Reina, José Julián Gregorio, said the city was “devastated” by the news and that his heart “suffered from this loss of heritage”. 🥺

What makes a bridge “Roman”? Well, there was a bridge there in Roman times, and there might be a stone or two in the base from the original bridge, so maybe that makes it Roman? But what is (or, now, was) there is something newer.

The “Medieval Bridge” perhaps. It may not have the same ring, but that’s what it is. According to documents of the era, around 1450 the local government began raising money for a new crossing, and a new bridge was built on top of the ruins between 1483 and 1490. So maybe not Roman, but at least old, right?
Well, in parts. Thing is, only counting documented instances, the bridge has at least partially collapsed a minimum of eight times: in 1625 the bridge was "broke by floods of water" and it also required redos in 1815, 1829, 1835, 1841, 1850 and 1994. (In the 1970s it was closed to traffic because of its bad state.)

Now, don’t get us wrong. We’re still very sad at the collapse of this old bridge that’s a symbol of the city and was declared a site of cultural interest in 2021. Especially since thousands of tourists go see it every year and the mayor’s heart “suffered from this loss of heritage”.

But it’s not Roman. Just saying. Still, go check it out if you can. Definitely worth a visit (collapsed or not).

2. 🎉 Madrid’s got bragging rights: ‘We’re No. 4!’

Madrid is cool. We’ve seen the stories and the stories and the stories from the British media that Spain’s capital is booming and an international dandy magnet so it must be true. But now we have hard numbers, so it must be really true.

Seriously, we have numbers. The EU’s stats Eurostat recently released its GDP numbers for Europe’s various regions, and under the new tally (for year 2023—it takes a while to count, apparently)—Madrid leapfrogged Ireland’s Dublin zone (aka Eastern and Midland) to take 4th place 🏆. That leaves it only behind the Paris, Milan and Munich regions. Little ol’ Madriddy’s all grown up! 🎂
This is so European. The regions are designated by a NUTS code, which is—honest to god—an acronym of the French for Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics, (Nomenclature des Unités territoriales statistiques). Madrid’s NUTS code is ES30. There, you’ve learned something.

But seriously, growing. Madrid’s regional GDP hit €293bn in 2023, about €2bn more than Dublin. That’s up 20% since 2019 (the last pre-pandemic year). The cause? Lots of reasons.

More (and richer) people. About 140,000 people move to Madrid each year. And the GDP per capita hit €42,198 in 2024, up from €35,601 in 2019.
Tourism. 11.2m tourists came in 2024, setting (yet another) record.
Foreign investment. Madrid received €24.7bn in foreign investment last year—and not just from people buying Salamanca apartments. That’s 67.1% of the Spanish total. Which is kinda crazy.

Sibling rivalry. We all know this is not about some dry numbers on an Excel spreadsheet—but about the competition between Madrid and Catalonia. Because, honestly, what would Spain be without that?

Podium change. Indeed, Catalonia regularly tied or beat Madrid in GDP until about 2017. Now, Madrid’s opened a 4% lead (about €11bn).

So what’s happened? Well, pick your media source.

Right. If you’re the right-wing (and therefore anti-Catalan nationalist) OKDiario, you publish triumphalist articles like “This is how the independence movement caused GDP in Catalonia to fall while Madrid's soared.”
Nationalist. If you’re the Catalan nationalist Ara (and dislike Madrid), you write a story snippily noting that Catalonia’s economy grew by three tenths of a point more than Madrid’s in 2024.
Left. If you’re the pro-PSOE Ser (and therefore against Madrid’s PP-ed government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso), you run a bit titled, “"How can we explain why poverty remains chronic in Madrid when it's the region with the highest GDP?"

Families are so complicated. 🤷

3. 📖 Book about man who killed his 2 kids sparks free-speech debate

This is not a happy story. In 2013, José Bretón was convicted of double homicide after being found guilty of killing his two children. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison—the maximum sentence under Spanish law at the time. Nor surprisingly, the murders shocked the entire country for their brutality and premeditation.

The details. In October 2011, Bretón murdered his children Ruth, 6, and José, 2, in Córdoba after his wife, Ruth Ortíz, told Bretón she was divorcing him.
“Missing.” Bretón told police his children had gone missing in a park while he looked away, but the investigation eventually found that he had taken them to a family property, sedated them and burned their bodies in a homemade incinerator using firewood and animal fat to reach extremely high temperatures.
Angry motives. The murders were judged to be premeditated and driven by a desire to punish his ex-wife by inflicting the ultimate pain. His lack of remorse sparked national conversations about vicarious violence, psychological abuse, and legal protections for children and mothers in custody battles.

The book. Luisgé Martín is a well-known Spanish author whose books often delve into the darker side of human behavior. He decided to write a book titled El Odio (The Hatred) about the case and visited Bretón in prison, interviewing him multiple times. This outraged many in Spain, including Ruth Ortíz.

“Understading.” Martín insisted his goal was “understanding” Bretón and, as El País says, to “delve into the mind of the criminal, into his motivations and feelings”. The book reignited the debate about the limits of literature in true crime and the ethics of telling real stories of extreme violence.
Not quite like Capote. Despite comparisons in style to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, critics say that Martín has only talked to Bretón, which allowed him to present his side of the story. Also, neither Martín nor the book’s publisher, Anagrama reached out to Ruth Ortíz—the writer said he didn’t dare “intrude” into her life for something like this. Well, seems he intruded.

Enter the courts. Ortíz asked the courts to suspend publication of the book, alleging “unlawful intrusion into the right to privacy and the personal image of the deceased minors”.

No luck in court. Although the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office of Barcelona requested the suspension of the book’s publication, the judge in the case on Monday rejected the request stating that “the documents submitted [in the mother’s complaint] are insufficient to assess” the case.
Not content, but speech. The judge did not rule on whether the book’s content violates the law, but rather limited his decision to reject the request, citing the fundamental right to freedom of expression.

Pause. The book was scheduled to hit the shelves yesterday, but the controversy (and the courts) have caused a delay. While Anagrama has issued a statement siding with the writer’s freedom of expression, the book is no longer available for pre-order online.

Not on sale. Some bookstores have already said they will not be selling “that shit” and critics are calling it a “good book with a terrible subject matter”.

Free speech. This drops at a fraught moment in free speech debates. Maybe JD Vance will weigh in.

4. 🖥️ No screen for you, Lucia

Just when you thought Madrid politics was about Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Pedro Sánchez (aka the Troll Queen and Mr Handsome) fighting about the end of democracy, something like an actual policy has popped up.

Put the shiny square down. Madrid’s regional government (led by Ayuso) has announced that it will severely limit the use of screens by students in publicly funded schools, thus inserting itself in a massive international debate about the uses and dangers of screentime. This will affect 500,000 students at 2,000 schools.
Just a taste. Under a new decree affecting public and publicly funded concertada schools, students age 3 and under will not be allowed to use screens (from phones to computers) in school, those from Pre-K to 2nd grade will be allowed one hour a week, while those in 3rd and 4th with get 90 minutes and those in 5th and 6th two hours.
Back to the future. Regional government spokesperson Miguel Ángel García: “What we want is to return to the essence of traditional education, but adapted to the present (...), a return to dictation, a return to attention, to handwriting, to spelling, to textbooks, to notebooks..."
Not so old-fashioned, it seems. We thought that sounded old-fashioned but then we saw research from Teachers College, Columbia University that found “evidence that children’s brains process written texts more deeply when they are presented in print rather than on a digital screen.” So there you are.

Not just dumb posturing for once. You know how you can tell this wasn’t just stupid political posturing (like the fight over whether the Madrid government did a bad thing by announcing a new discount transit scheme without noting that the money for it came from the central government)? Because another PP-led government (Murcia, this time) announced a similar screen crackdown on Tuesday and nobody from the PSOE came out to suggest that they were trying to kill democracy.

In fact. The national government announced a bill (the Law on the Protection of Minors in Digital Environments) at its Tuesday cabinet meeting, one that admitted there was a “problem” with screens in school and pushed to foment their "safe, healthy, sustainable, critical and responsible” use.

Yes, it’s a real thing. The U.S. is seeing a big parent push to eliminate screens in schools because of the belief they distract kids, create an Anxious Generation (you’ve seen the book about the “epidemic of mental illness”) and in general do more harm than good. (Which explains the constant question of why Silicon Valley tech execs send their kids to a tech-free Waldorf School.)

5. 👑 Pix of Princess Leonor in Chile freak out the Palace

Royal drama! We’re sure you all know that the Royal Palace in Spain (as many other royal palaces around the world) is always cautious about releasing photos of royal family members to the public—especially if we’re talking about the young royals.

Things got real this week after captures from security footage of Princess Leonor (who is 19) doing some shopping at a mall in Punta Arenas, Chile, were leaked to the media. The photos show nothing unusual — just her walking around. But it’s still an unauthorized publication so some heads have to roll (figuratively, of course).

Charges! The Royal Palace, in coordination with the Spanish embassy in Santiago, has decided to press charges against the mall. This is the first time the Zarzuela Palace has decided to file a complaint over the publication of private photos of a Royal Family member due to them being obtained through an illegal procedure.
How, not what. The issue here is how those images were obtained. The royal household is citing data protection laws in both Spain and Chile.

Wait… why is Princess Leonor in Chile? Leonor is currently on a six-month training voyage aboard the Spanish Navy’s Juan Sebastián Elcano, with stops in Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile. During port calls, the crew—including the princess—has some free time, but the palace insists no photos be taken without consent.

Chilean TV show Mucho Gusto broadcast the footage and photos, with the mall’s comms manager Cristina Salomón saying live she was “excited” about the princess’s visit. However, she seemed unaware of possible legal consequences. Chilean journalist Iván Guerrero said Leonor’s presence in Punta Arenas caused “a revolution” in the town of 150,000 residents.
The Zona Franca mall acknowledged sharing the images “upon journalistic request” and said that the visit was private, unannounced, and uneventful. They also said they were willing to cooperate with any investigation. But the palace is not budging: Leonor’s privacy must be respected, even abroad.

More than meets the eye? Some say the real reason for the move is to divert attention from a different set of images taken days earlier in Uruguay in which she could be seen on a beach wearing a bikini (these have not been released).

Look over there! The strategy here may be to redirect the public’s attention to a controlled controversy (like the innocuous photos of Leonor from the mall) while issuing a broader warning to paparazzi that unauthorized images, even of a now-adult Leonor, will not be tolerated.

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