Europe’s Wet, Winter Wave Wrap Up
Precipitation in Portugal, rain in Spain, barrels in Britain and some magical moments in Mully, the Med, Morocco and Mundaka.
This week on the Iberian Peninsula, surfers gathered and stared at a strange orb-shaped figure that dropped into the ocean. There were oohs and ahhs, as word quickly spread up and down the Atlantic Coast that a truly miraculous, natural phenomenon was, literally, going down, before their very eyes.
It was, gulp, the sun, and an actual sunset. Maybe the first of the year. For most of 2026, a stubborn high pressure system has been parked over Scandinavia.
“This has been blocking areas of low pressure and milder, wet weather from pushing across from the Atlantic, deflecting the jet stream further south,” said surf-forecast chief forecaster Rob Davies. “That has brought the wave energy, but also the wind and rain to the UK, western parts of Europe and the Mediterranean.”
“Since the start of January, discharges from dams and reservoirs have been the equivalent of about a year of our country's water consumption," said Maria Graça Carvalho, Portugal’s Minister for the Environment. Most of Europe has had a wet and wild winter, though Spain and Portugal have been the worst hit. So far this year, there have been six major low-pressure systems that have hit the Iberian Peninsula.
“I hadn’t seen anything like the devastation in all my time in Portugal,” said Andrew “Cotty” Cotton, who has done about 15 winter seasons in Nazare. “It’s been a month of gale-force onshore winds, and while there’s been swell, it's all been really from a westerly direction, which isn’t good for the canyon. On the flipside, that’s been great for other parts of Europe.”
Italian OG Roby D’Amico told Surf-forecast that Storm Harry provided the biggest and most powerful waves he’d ever seen in 20 years of surfing in the Mediterranean. As stop press, at the time of writing, a new swell was brewing in the Mare Nostrum.
Further north, however, Ireland has been the beneficiary of the relatively abnormal winter. Swell isn’t usually a problem at the Irish left, but the more common storms that hit the exposed peninsula usually come with strong winds. Sure its been wetter than an otter’s pocket, but the waves have been freakily good.
“I would say this winter has seen the biggest single progression in paddle surfing at Mully in its history,” said Cotty. “The combination of so many great days with good winds, the local crew pushing hard and overseas surfers coming in, has seen the bar go through the roof.”
Local OG scored the wave of his life. "I've been waiting a decade for that wave, and was so thankful it held open," he told surf-forecast. "It's been a winter that has just kept on giving.
Elsewhere in the UK, like Ireland, has scored plenty of swell, albeit accompanied by plenty of rain. Some surfers in Devon and Cornwall received a record rainfall of 40 consecutive days since January 1. That's biblical shit. Surfers in Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear wouldn’t let the bucketloads of rainfall get in the way of what has been an above-average season, with consistent swell being met by rare(ish) offshore waves.
Morocco has been another beneficiary of the unusual winter stalled pattern, close enough to be rattled by the swell, but with enough distance to add pattern to the madness. From Safi in the north to Taghazout’s points and mysto waves in the Sahara, it's been an epic run of swell that only now, after six weeks, is ramping down. Cotty joined local OG Jerome Sayhoun and surfed a big wave left, among the point sessions.
Lastly, the Basque Country has been caught, like ham and cheese, right in the middle of the meteorological baguette. Last week, 100 mph gales were reported near France's south-west coast, as Storm Nils swept across the Atlantic flank. It left 900,000 homes without power. In between squalls, though, the French beachies that handle size and power, and their reef breaks near Guethary, have delivered some moments of magic.
The Spanish side of the Basque coast, which works at right angles to the French, has had a better time of it. Mundaka’s banks have been supremely stable, and its rivermouth funnel has twisted the westerly winds into a more favourable offshore southerly direction. Aritz Aranburu avoided any rain by staying in the tube for most of January.
“Overall, I’d rank the winter as a positive,” concluded Cotty. “Nazare has been a write-off, but I’ve had some of the best waves and beatings of my life in Ireland and Morocco.”
It’s been a wet one, sure, but that high pressure has finally shifted and there’s now a sense of spring in the air, as Europe twists towards the sun. As ever, with 7000 spots, we’ll keep you posted on what’s firing where.
