Winter officially starts on 22 December and, following an autumn during which temperatures have been normal and which has been somewhat dry, it is expected to be slightly warmer than usual with rainfalls on a par with those for a benchmark period from 1981 to 2010.
The regional delegate for the national meteorological agency, Aemet, is predicting that the average temperature up to 20 March (when winter will end) will be eleven degrees and the rainfall will be around 129 litres per square metre: both of these are considered to be typical, with some of precipitation being in the form of snow.
For the immediate future, and so the Christmas festivities, Aemet says that things will be mainly dry with highs of between 17 and 20 degrees and lows of around seven.
Autumn has seen some uneven distribution of rainfall, with Ibiza and Formentera having experienced a very rainy season, while in Minorca there has been less rain and Majorca has been mostly dry. Temperatures have averaged 18.5 degrees, with November having been 0.3 degrees warmer than usual. The highest recorded temperature of 31.5C was at Palma's university on 5 October and the lowest (minus 2.9) in Escorca on 11 December. The first snow on the Puig Major above 800 metres was on 23 November, when three centimetres settled.
The first half of December was 0.6 degrees warmer than normal and was extremely dry (98% less rainfall than typical). Highs were above ones typical for the month, while low temperatures were in fact lower than usual.
As for the whole of 2015, the average temperature has so far been 17.5 degrees, which is 0.3 degrees warmer than normal. The highest temperature was the 40.3 degrees in Soller on 14 July, and the lowest was -5.5 degrees in Escorca on 10 February. There has also been ten per cent less rain than usual, although rainfalls in February, March, June, August and September have compensated for the lack of rain in April, May, July and since October.
The wettest month of the year was March and June was the driest. The heaviest snowfalls occurred between 4 and 6 February when snow fell at 100 metres.