03 June 2010

Hot, hot, hot

The temperature is gradually cranking up here, currently in the high 20s C, around 80F. In Limassol we can expect an average temperature of 33 (91) during July and August, and no rain until October. We hit 33 already on Monday! By contrast in Troodos high in the hills the temperature is about 11 degrees lower, quite a contrast for such a small island.

It's amazing how quickly you acclimatise. When I visited in early February it seem positively balmy (well it was, compared with the UK) during the day and was astounded to see so many people in their woolies, but when the temperature doesn't generally drop below 20 degrees for a full six months you start to understand how 12 degrees could feel chilly. My perception and tolerance of heat has already altered and I'm now reasonably comfortable at the current temperature as long as nothing too strenuous is involved.

We obviously get plently of sunshine (in Limassol an average of 9.1 hours per day) but being in the eastern Med it doesn't stay light as late in midsummer. Sunset is around 8.30pm even at the equinox. This has the advantage of both an absence of those really depressing dark winter mornings and the fact that the temperature starts to drop off from late afternoon.

There is a commensurate lack of rain too (an average 18" per annum in Limassol) but when it rains, boy can it rain! I got caught out one day in April with monsoon-like conditions. An hour round trip to collect Elizabeth from school took double the time with a landslip closing the highway and the roads in town churned up and flowing brown.

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