[anthk]

TL:DR Spain is not just Andalusia, and the US is not just Texas.

Spain is like a condensed minigame map of the US. Remember when the Morrowind videogame looked megadiverse because of the mountains generating lots of different terrains and curves? That's Spain. You cross a mountain tunnel by car and your warm 28C degrees in May at Leon somehow shifted to a cloudy, gray sky with 15 degrees in Asturias in -literally, measured by clock- ~10 minutes.

You would think that you where somehow abducted and teleported from a UFO in the road. But no, it's just the rough nature.

And the Winters in Leon are bipolar being a dry, continental climate. So you can have scorching summers... and freezing winters with -10 degrees with ease.

So, yes, Winters outside the Mediterranean sea can be rough.