Blame the Weather

Now that our entry is a little more legitimate, we decided to put the weather info in anyways, seems how there might be 1 or 2 of you who might be interested.


I remember wondering before we arrived here “will there ever be a time during the next year during which I will feel cold.” I found out early on that the answer was yes, but as I am sitting here wearing a sweater and track pants after a night of shivering under a couple of blankets, I decided to write a little bit about Kabala weather. (Also, nothing really significant has happened lately as we are settling back into routine, so we might be developing writer’s block).

One huge benefit to staying here a full calendar year is the opportunity to see all the seasonal changes that happen within that time. Rainy season lasts from late April until late October, and the rest of year, obviously, is dry season. When we arrived to Kabala on September 2, it was overcast and rainy for almost a full week, much like the lower mainland but much warmer. From then until the end of rainy season, it was very hot during the day, but almost every evening would bring a thunderstorm, which would cool things down nicely and settle any dust. We were constantly warned about December and January being very cold. Other than the fact that the roads are terrible, rainy season was quite a nice time weather – wise, and it is amazing how completely green and lush everything is.
Dry season, on the other hand, is just that – extremely dry. It hasn’t rained once since October 31, and whereas before we were wondering why in the world we brought things like lotion and chap stick to such a humid and damp place, now we can’t apply the stuff fast enough. November was very hot, but certainly not so hot that we had trouble sleeping or anything. December and January has been awesome weather. A cool (although extremely dry) wind constantly blows, which makes it quite cold at night, but during the day it is hot – very much like a summer day back home. For the last week, however, the weather has actually gotten legitimately cold. It has been overcast and very windy, and we walk around in the middle of the afternoon with coats or sweaters on. This has been totally surprising and quite nice actually. We even have sipped hot cocoa on our veranda in sweaters with our hands wrapped around the mug for warmth praising. I only mention this fact because we never would have thought it would happen. The reaction of the locals to the cold has been hilarious. They build fires to keep warm, and absolutely everything that goes wrong is blamed on “the cold,” “the dust,” or “the breeze.”
Things just keep getting dryer and dryer, and dustier and dustier. February we hear is very hot – no clouds hardly at all. March is the last month before rainy season and the hottest of the year. Supposedly the clouds come, but no rain yet bringing stifling humidity. April will be an awesome month: the thousands of mango trees will bear fruit, and the first rains will come, which will be a cool thing to witness.
Sorry to write about the weather, but it has actually been quite surprising and interesting.