Summer storms in Catalonia usually originate and grow in the early afternoon in the Pyrenees area, where the mountains force the air to rise, promoting the condensation of atmospheric humidity and the formation of large clouds, to later move towards south while depleting. In many cases, the storm hits in points of Alt Berguedà without reaching further south from Berga. On these summer afternoons, large vertically developing clouds appear on the northern horizon of the sky seen from the Bages district –as in this image taken from Santa Caterina hill, in Manresa, on the afternoon of 26.08.2022-, while the sky remains clear or slightly cloudy in the east, south and west and the ground is dry.
The north-south gradient in the scope of summer storms is opposite to the east wind situations that usually result in larger rainfall in the southern half of the Bages district.
[photo Jordi Badia]