Music critics gave the song positive reviews, complimenting it as a dance ballad and noting Gomez's vocal maturity.

The song's accompanying music video, directed by Chris Dooley and shot on-site in Lucerne Valley, California features Gomez frolicking in the desert surrounded by a swarm of photographs of her and her love interest, before they meet during a rainstorm.

Becky Bain of Idolator called the song a "mature dance track" and said that it "wouldn’t entirely be out of place on a Sophie Ellis-Bextor album.

"[2] A Spanish-language version of the song titled "Un Año Sin Lluvia" was released through the iTunes Store on October 26, 2010.

[3] "A Year Without Rain" was written by Lindy Robbins and Toby Gad, the later also producing it, with a length of three minutes and twenty-nine seconds.

[12] Megan Vick of Billboard said that while Gomez did not have the vocal power of Demi Lovato, she "makes a strong effort to attack the high notes as she croons the chorus".

[13] David Welsh of musicOMH noted Gomez' mature performance and wrote that the song "reaps rewards with an impressively heartbroken stab at euro-dance".

[5] In contrast, The Washington Post critic Allison Stewart was unfavorable of the lyrical content of the song, commenting that it was "the sort of exercise in teenage co-dependence...that should be long extinct.

[15] On the week dated January 1, 2011, the song debuted at number thirty-six on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart.

[18] The song also appeared on numerous European charts, peaking at seventy-eight in the United Kingdom,[19] fifty-six in Germany,[20] and forty-one in Slovakia.

Nadine Cheung of AOL JSYK said "She sings: 'I'm missing you so much / Can't help it, I'm in love / A day without you is like a year without rain' and that's really what's depicted in a simple and sweet way.

[29] Kara Warner of MTV News commented, "Although it wasn't a stadium-rocking performance à la Lady Gaga or Katy Perry, Gomez powered through her pop song with a sense of earnestness and commitment.