Current snow level, 5-day forecast, main peaks and ski resort status in Picos de Europa. Highest peak: Torre de Cerredo (2650 m).
| Peak | Elevation | Lat/Lon | Status vs snow level |
|---|
Picos de Europa is the quintessential Atlantic limestone range, with mean precipitation above 2000 mm on the summits and very high frequency of fog and wet snow. The snow season runs October to May, peaking in January and February. The snow level is structurally low: 800-1200 m with Atlantic storms and drops to 400-600 m with maritime polar air (recent record: February 2018, 200 m on the coastal platform). Snow depth at Lagos de Covadonga (1100 m) frequently exceeds 1 m in midwinter, with historical maxima close to 3 m in the Urrieles. Avalanche risk is moderate to high but less publicized than in the Pyrenees; the biggest hazard is wet snow that quickly turns to ice plates, dangerous for hikers. The all-time depth record was set in February 1985 at Pena Vieja: 5.2 m. Three ski resorts operate in the area: Fuentes de Invierno, San Isidro and Alto Campoo, all between 1500 and 2155 m. The Picos hosted small glaciers until the 19th century (Jou Negro); only permanent snowfields remain, in steady retreat. The National Park, the first in Spain (1918, originally Mount Covadonga), owes part of its biodiversity to the snow regime.
The Picos de Europa pack 2,600 metres of relief into little more than twenty kilometres from the sea, and that abruptness is their defining feature. The massif forces humid air to rise all at once, which drives precipitation up: it is among the wettest and snowiest areas on the peninsula. The snow patches of the Cornión and the Urrieles last well into summer in good years.
Between December and March the 0 °C isotherm over the Picos de Europa sits on average at 1,790 metres. With the summit at 2,650 metres, the summit sits above the snow level for practically the whole winter. Further down things change fast: the level drops below 2,000 metres on about 110 days each winter, below 1,500 on about 68, and reaches 1,000 metres or less on 25.
In the coldest episode of the 30-year series, on 10 January 2010, the air was so cold that the 0 °C isotherm sat at sea level: in theory it was snowing from the coast upwards.
It is the underlying question in any range with a ski resort, and the series answers it. The mean winter snow level over the Picos de Europa went from 1,818 metres in 1995-2004 to 1,839 metres in 2015-2024. The rise is small, 21 metres, but it points the same way as everywhere else.
The month with the lowest level is January. The curve rising towards summer says how long the season really lasts here.
| Mean level (m) | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Picos de Europa | 1,666 | 1,705 | 1,961 | 2,188 | 2,606 | 3,096 | 3,383 | 3,445 | 3,160 | 2,792 | 2,115 | 1,820 |
The snow level is the height at which the temperature crosses 0 °C. Here it comes from ERA5, the reanalysis produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, downloaded from the Copernicus Climate Data Store under a CC-BY licence: hourly temperature over the Picos de Europa between 1995-01-01 and 2024-12-06, 30 complete years, extrapolated with the standard lapse rate of 6.5 °C per kilometre from the height of the model cell, which here is 864 metres.
Two caveats worth keeping in mind. The first is that ERA5 smooths the mountain: its cell represents 864 metres where the real summit reaches 2,650, so it describes the air mass well but not the specific terrain. The second is that what is computed is the 0 °C isotherm, which is the theoretical ceiling: snow usually starts to settle 200 to 300 metres below it, because the first flakes cool the air as they melt and pull the real level down. For going into the mountains, AEMET’s official forecast always takes precedence.
