Although the highs are beginning to ease up a bit from August’s heat wave, summer is still in full swing in Madrid. The capital kicks off September with highs nearing 34 ºC, which will continue to rise in the coming days, and lows around 20 ºC—temperatures that will once again bring warm nights to much of the city.
Meanwhile, some towns in the Sierra Norte are experiencing cooler temperatures at dawn. According to the AEMET forecast for this Tuesday, September 1, Rascafría will drop to 14 °C, compared to the 20 °C forecast for Madrid: a difference of about four degrees, more moderate than that recorded during the extreme heatwave in mid-August, but still noticeable.
The Sierra Norte Retreat
Rascafría is once again among the coolest spots in the Community of Madrid thanks to its location in the upper Lozoya Valley, surrounded by the Sierra de Guadarrama and at an elevation of more than 1,100 meters.
The difference with central Madrid no longer reaches the extremes seen during the heat wave, when the Rascafría station recorded 8.9 ºC in the early morning hours of August 18. Even so, while the city remains around 20 ºC at the start of the day, the mountain town is expected to have a low of 16 ºC this Tuesday.
It’s not just a matter of the thermometer: at that hour, the streets of Rascafría and its surroundings tend to feel cooler, thanks to the mountain air, the valley, the nearby forests, and less heat buildup than in the metropolitan area.
From nearly 32 ºC to a smaller gap
On August 18, the Community of Madrid experienced one of the largest temperature differences of the summer. Rascafría dropped to 8.9 °C, while Alcalá de Henares reached a high of 40.7 °C that day: a difference of 31.8 °C between the two extremes, although these temperatures correspond to different times of the day.
However, the current situation is very different. There are no active weather warnings in the region, and the highs—while still high for early September—are far from the temperatures exceeding 40 ºC recorded during the heat wave. Although temperatures are expected to rise to 38 ºC in the capital this coming Friday.
Why It’s Cooler in Rascafría
The lower nighttime temperature in Rascafría is due to a combination of geographical factors: first, its elevation, as the town is located more than 1,100 meters above sea level, meaning it starts from a lower baseline temperature than the city of Madrid. Another contributing factor is its location in the Lozoya Valley, which allows cold air accumulated on the slopes to descend during the night and concentrate in the lower-lying areas; furthermore, the forests and waterways of the Sierra Norte promote cooling after sunset.
Madrid, on the other hand, retains a significant amount of the daytime heat in its urban areas. As a result, even when the highs drop slightly, the lows remain around 20 ºC—a threshold associated with so-called tropical nights.