True, sea fog and the very chilly grey skies associated with it, sometimes spoil the pleasure of sitting on the beach ; and in somes years the mist clings to the shores more than during April but sunshine usually prevails.
Northwesterly winds blow steadily for much of the morning with a quick switch to an onshore sea breeze around 11 o’clock.
As the inland parts of Spain continue to heat up during the afternoon, the temperature contrast between the sea and land becomes more marked.
The result is a sea breeze strong enough to whip up the sand, and waves big enough to dissuade swimmers from venturing into the briny.
For experienced windsurfers the conditions could not be better.
Temperatures peak around 23 Celsius (73F) at 11 o’clock in the morning before descending quickly to 19 Celsius (66F) as the sea breezes develop. This value declines further around sunset as the wind quickly dies away, and a cardigan or light jacket is usually necessary for those heading to the restaurants at 9 or 10 o’clock.
It may come as a surprise to many when, after a shared bottle of Valdepenas or two, they leave the restaurant and find everyone ambling around in shirt-sleeves with the temperature having risen above 20 Celsius (68F) again .
The land breeze has pulled the warm air back to the coast , and it’s not that unusual to have the highest temperature of the ‘day’ in the early part of the night.
It sometimes rains in May, either a light shower on the sea breeze front as it pushes inland, or the remnants of inland showers drifting over the coast; and sometimes as weakening cold fronts move eastwards across Spain and produce a couple of hours of steady rain.
This becomes less likely as the month progresses , although on a few occasions high-level thunderstorms develop ahead of the cold fronts and give some short-sharp downpours. This phenomenon tends to occur in the evening or early part of the night with the source region of the storms being the hot, hilly areas of Morocco.
When you see the vivid lightning and hear the low rumbles of thunder high above, you realize that summer is just beginning and the rain that’s falling may be the last for several months.