It is raining. And this might be a good moment to consider the question of Running the Bulls in Sanfermin in the rain and which is often considered by many people to be more dangerous and risky than on a dry day. The facts tell us otherwise, as we will now outline… for running the bulls in the rain is neither very common nor any more risky for that reason. It is generally believed that each year on some day or other of the running of the bulls it will tend to rain and thus increase the risk for the runner. In fact, running the bulls in the rain or over a wet surface is quite rare, in spite of the fact that Pamplona city in Navarra is one of the wettest in all of Spain (the eleventh wettest in all the State according to the data). Actually, running the bulls in the rain comes to 13, 6 per cent of the total runnings.
Since 1980 we have had just 20 Running of the Bulls which have taken place over a wet surface due to rainfall. The data contained in the buscaencierros of Sanfermin.com and from The Public University of Navarra reveal these facts to us. They also tell us that these runnings in the rain work out at an average time of 4, 07 minutes, with an average number of gorings per running at 0,8 and about 3,75 injuries occurring on each run. The bull-ranches which have run most often in the rain are the Jandilla, Dolores Aguirre and Miura, each of them three times in total (These 3 bull-ranches will be present at Sanfermin 2014.) The wettest year was 2004 where there were three days out of the total of eight days with rain.
As regards the belief of an increase in the risk factor, a research model for an estimation of the number of injuries in a Sanfermin running of the bulls, carried out by Ignacio Rodríguez Amador and Álvaro Sastre Esteban, found that a bullrunning over wet ground produces less injuries than over dry ground.
