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I'm looking to book a flight sometime this fall to Barcelona. How far away can I be sure that the water is going to be warm enough to swim?

Obviously there are seasonal variations, so I'm interested in a date which has a 90% confidence of being warm enough. For the purposes of this question warm is 21 degrees Celcius.

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    Everything is warm if you're brave enough. :)
    – JoErNanO ♦
    Jun 2, 2015 at 22:04
  • @pnuts during the afternoon, as that's usually prime swimming time
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Jun 2, 2015 at 22:29

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Acording to this surfing site, which claims to have up-to-date and historical statistics about water temperature, the water is supposed to be warm enough (according to your definition) from June to October.

I'm linking below the image of the sea temperature range in Barceloneta (one of Barcelona's beaches) to save it for future readers:

enter image description here

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  • This graph shows an average but the reality is that every year, during September, there's a period of intense storms caused by the difference of the temperature of the air (starting to be coder) and the sea (still warm). This causes the rupture of the thermocline in the sea and an abrupt descent of the temperature of the superficial water. So a more exact answer would be "it is warm enough to swim until the storms of September".
    – Daniel
    Oct 23, 2015 at 2:55
  • @Daniel, I didn't know that! If you have any evidences of those "storms of September" you can write an answer.
    – gmauch
    Oct 23, 2015 at 6:05
  • I didn't create a new answer because I am not sure if I would be able to find an article in English talking about this local phenomenon. Also, I am not refuting your answer, just adding more information. In any case answer is based in my own experience because I grew up in the coast next to Barcelona and I spent a lot of time on the beach as a child. I also used to sail, so I have some experience about the sea. You will have to take my word, sorry. :)
    – Daniel
    Oct 23, 2015 at 6:21
  • Actually, I found some information: meteopremia.com/historics.htm If you check the section "Precipitacions (mm)", you will see that most of the years there's a month (August, September or October) where there's more than 100mm of rain. These are the storms I was talking about. Although it is not reflected on the table, this rain use to fall in a couple of days and, after that, the sea use to become cold and dirty because of all the sediments carried by the streams.
    – Daniel
    Oct 23, 2015 at 6:49
  • @Daniel I wasn't criticizing your comment,I was encouraging you to write an answer and help who asked this question and others with the same problem in the future! Usually when you write answers people would like to know what's the basis for what you said and personal experience IS a good source! Go ahead and write a better answer than mine, afterall I've never to Barcelona myself!
    – gmauch
    Oct 23, 2015 at 7:25

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