Stereotypes about Catalonia - Catalonia means “parties and sun”, “from January to December”, says Parisian

Tomàs Molina, Catalan public television's weatherman, answers: “It only rains 100 days a year here, but when it does, it rains a lot, almost like Monsoon season in India.”

CNA / Jordi Font Comas d'Argemir / Maria Fernández

November 17, 2010 03:34 PM

Paris/Barcelona (ACN).- Barcelona’s Mediterranean climate is inviting for tourists in search of their next vacation spot. 35-year-old Parisian Luc says that when he thinks of Catalonia he thinks of “parties and sun”. “Catalans are not complicated people. If you give them “San Miguel” beer, music, shellfish and a lot of sun, they laugh all night long, from January to December”, he says. But the sun doesn’t always shine in Catalonia. According to the Catalan public television’s weatherman, Tomàs Molina, in Catalonia it rains 100 days out of the year. “In Catalonia, when it rains, it rains a lot, almost like Monsoon season in India”, he explains, although for a short period of time.


When thinking of Barcelona or Catalonia, Luc thinks of the sun, something not so common in the French capital. Thanks to its climate, “it’s always pleasant for us, rainy Parisians, to go to laugh in Catalonia, and especially Barcelona”, explained Luc. For Luc, sun and parties are one in the same. He vacationed in Catalonia throughout his life, partying in Barcelona, the Costa Brava and the Costa Daurada.

Up to 400 litres per square metre in 24 hours

Tomàs Molina, weatherman at TV3, said, “I teach university classes on Prognostic Meteorology and I tell my students that if they have doubts, it will not rain, because it only rains 100 days a year in Catalonia”. But when it does rain, it pours, arriving to 400 litres per square metre in just 24 hours. Molina considers this as an example of the Catalan ‘seny i rauxa’, a mix of prudence with craziness, he explains.