Granada weather: snow expected to thaw on Sierra Nevada as temperatures rise

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Rainfall will be less intense this week, but with rising temperatures and waterlogged soil, experts predict more flooding and rivers bursting their banks

Inés Gallastegui

Granada

Tuesday, 10 February 2026, 12:06

The rise in temperatures in southern Spain this week has meant that snow is only expected on mountains above 3,000 metres on Tuesday 10 February and above 2,900 on Wednesday.

This, together with the rains and waterlogged soil following Storm Leonardo raises fears of further flooding and the possibility of more rivers bursting their banks. There is also concern about heavy thawing of snow and ice on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada ski resort.

Samuel Biener, geologist and expert in natural risk management at the meteorological information platform Meteored (tiempo.com), explains that fronts will stay in Granada province until Saturday, leaving rainfall. "They won't be as heavy as last week, but even so more than 100mm are expected in the area around Granada city, the Sierra Nevada and Loja," says the meteorology expert.

The problem is that the soils are saturated, many rivers and reservoirs are at their limit and even if there is less rain, there is still a risk of flooding a rivers bursting their banks, he explains.

This week a long, narrow band of warm, moist air from the other side of the Atlantic is pushing through southern Spain: "This subtropical air mass will cause temperatures to soar and although rainfall will not be very significant, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday it will all be in the form of water at most of the Sierra Nevada peaks," Biener explains.

With rain below 2,900-3,000 metres and a strong wind that will also carry a lot of snow, we can expect a high volume of snowmelt and, therefore, flooding in the basins at the foot of the mountain.

The water from the melting snow flows down in runoff and ends up in the rivers, including the Genil and its tributaries Monachil, Dílar and Darro on the northern slope and Guadalfeo, Poqueira, Trevélez, Cádiar and the Almerian Adra and Andarax, on the southern slope.

Subtropical air

"On Friday we are going to have a more active front with a snow level that drops again - down to 1,100-1,400 metres, according to the Aemet forecast - and some of the snow that melts will be recovered, but in the next few days we have to be on the alert again due to this new precipitation and the thaw, in a terrain that is already practically saturated," stresses the Meteored expert.

The snow accumulated in the Sierra Nevada last week reached 150 cubic metres in volume, that is, more than the Rules and Colomera reservoirs combined and filled to capacity, according to the University of Granada researcher and hydrology and snow expert Javier Herrero.

In fact, according to his data - which he shares on X through his profile @NevadaNieve - last week the melting resulted in 15,000 million litres in a single day, which went to the Quéntar and Canales reservoirs and the basins of the Monachil and Dílar rivers. More water is expected to enter the reservoirs this week.