My grandfather has a farm in Castilla and this year 2026 he says is the worst he's seen in decades. It rains quite a bit in January and February, but then there's nothing and everything dries up.
Winter rain isn't enough to make up for what evaporates later in spring and summer, especially with increasingly higher temperatures! The problem is that even if it rains well in January and February, those months are short and the rest of the year is brutal drought, even more so with the extreme heat we've been getting these past few years.
The problem is that winter water arrives all at once and doesn't stick around. When it rains a lot in a short time, especially in areas like Castilla with clay and compacted soils, the water either runs off into watersheds (and goes elsewhere) or evaporates quickly. It doesn't infiltrate the subsoil enough to create reserves that keep the land hydrated throughout spring and summer. It's like if you filled a glass all at once: half of it spills.
What makes it worse is that the months from May to September are increasingly dry and brutally hot. I visited some friends recently who have a small vegetable garden in Toledo and I was surprised how much water they needed to pump in June so nothing would die, despite having decent rain four months before. The soil really dries out, the subsoil gets depleted, and the aquifers don't refill the way they used to.
Your grandfather is right to see it as especially serious. The thing is, you don't just need rain in winter - you need it distributed over time and then to maintain some moisture during the warm months. A drought like the one in 2026 happens when the balance breaks: concentrated winter + scorching spring and summer + less water infiltrating the ground = disaster for crops and livestock.
What they don't mention is that Castilla relies heavily on underground aquifers that used to recharge more in the past, and now that recharge isn't enough to make up for what gets pumped out for irrigation 🚜 So even if it rains in winter, if it's not enough to fill those deep reserves and it keeps getting hotter in spring and summer, the land ends up drying out anyway. It's like your grandfather is pumping from a pool that fills up a little less every year.
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