So is it really that hot down there?

[gavilan]

costakid wrote: Sometimes it makes you wonder why people move to Spain. ... I am not a 'johnny come lately' or someone who fell for that tv programme ' a place in the sun' ...... I first came to Spain in 1964 ... and I instantly loved it ... the sun was not a factor ... the history was the main attraction ... it took me years before I could move here ... then I bought the ruins of an old flour/water mill .... something that was intimately connected with the life and times and people of this area ... and when that building boom began in the early 2000s. I wrote a book about what life had been like before we expats arrived ... I am deeply. deeply attached ot this area ... which is why I am so angry and upset about the mess people have made of it ...

Benidorm wrote : But luckily most people just make the most of all situations.. ... the situation here has been very difficult these last few years ... we have had an extended and damaging drought ... the avocado, mango,d olive. almond trees are dying ... mountain springs and streams are almost non existent now ... the stream in front of this mill is just a muddy trickle ... last year we had one day of temp over 40, this year we have had six ... with weeks of summer still to come ... trying to sleep at night is a nightmare as temps rarely drop below 30 ... many villages have water restrictions ...I have to rely on washing up and shower water to keep alive what few plants remain cos we are forbidden to use tap water...

it feels to me like this area is a microcosm of climate change/global warming ... but nobody wants to acknowledge that ...

[Lavanda]

Sit tight for a bit … today’s climate hysteria headlines tell us that the Gulf Stream - El Niño is changing course or even dying and as early as 2025 Northern Europe will be plunged into a permanent permafrost. We may end up living in Paradise after all.

[gavilan]

meanwhile

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-c ... 81942.html

[costakid]

meanwhile

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-c ... 81942.html

And the planet has a great way of putting itself right. We will probably have the wettest winter on record then people will moan that the dry river beds are flowing and they cant get to their houses.

If someone checked the records they would find that its not that much hotter than any other year. A lot of scare mongering by the woke BBC etc.

[BENIDORM]

Gavilan,
If life is so unbearable for you in Southern Spain I can only offer one word of advice for you....MOVE.

Saludos,
Gordon

[gavilan]

Move? ... and stop being such 'a thorn in the flesh' to some A.com members?!

[jonbar.1]

Hear Hear CostaKid.
Both the BBC and The Independent are the top competitors for the "Britain's Got Doom" title.

[Wicksey]

I must admit we both do moan about the heat, but I think we are finding it worse as we age. We moved here when we were in our early 40s (long before menopause or 'man'opause struck ) so didn't notice the heat so much apart from 2003. Mind you, the local Spanish complain about the heat too. In the pueblo all the old ladies are fanning themselves and saying 'que calor' to each other, maybe it is an age thing.

We never moved here for the summer heat, the same as we would never have gone abroad on holiday in July or August. We
are here as we appreciate the mild and most importantly for us, bright, autumn and winters. We're not beach people and are not sunbathers, and barely ever sit or eat out of doors as we have a problem with flies and biting insects but we do like to potter around outdoors, walk and cycle when the weather is more agreeable.

However, the thing which is a huge worry and is new to us is the current drought. There are still huge areas of hillsides being worked into terracing for new trees and in the past 11 years since we've been at this house, the numbers of mangoes planted have been incredible. We've run out of water many times due to our neighbour (our supplier) using it all on his mangoes, and we really do want our own water supply in the next house, something we've never yet had in Spain. The potential lack of water for trees and all the new blocks of flats being built on the Costa is certainly a concern and not something we've encountered before on this scale.

The weather is all or nothing these days, not made any better by the hysterical news reports. There always seems to be a record broken, (the hottest April on record here this year for example) and the climate change zealots are pushing their manifesto at us all the time. So many TV programmes seem to include 'the end is nigh' message if we don't all switch to electric cars and heat pumps! We've lived here through monsoon rains for a number of winters and wouldn't be surprised if it happened again at some point. I can remember when Lake Viñuela was full to bursting, rather than only 8.8% full.

As I've written before, we are planning to move, for a number of different reasons. Some people do love the heat and sun, some of us aren't keen, we're all different. Some of us tolerate it better than others. Certainly I do feel pretty awful when the humidity is high and the high overnight temperatures are particularly draining. We hardly do anything when it is like that, so the 2 months of the worst of the heat do seem to drag on when we both find it too hot to do anything at all. It has been a little fresher this past week which has been welcome. At the height of the heat we couldn't walk on the paseo during the day, and we don't usually venture out at night when it is more bearable as we can't be bothered to drive down and find parking. We can't walk where we live so are a bit stuck indoors, but hope to remedy that in the future, as we want to live somewhere where we can walk and cycle from our house which would be nice. When we go away we always walk each evening as we stay in flat campo areas, so we do look forward to that option.

The forecast for the coming week certainly does look more 'normal' for us, high 20s/early 30s rather than touching 40

[jonbar.1]

Highly recommend:
Youtube...type-in: "George Carlin,saving the Planet"
He's just a stand-up comic,but a great philosopher!

[fyfin]

Been reading the comments re the "heatwave" and it always comes as a surprise how hot it gets here in summer. We live in a small town in Almeria and thanks to Facebook posts we can get comparisons of temperatures. I had posts from 2013, 2015, 2017 and last year and the temperatures were more or less the same. In fact on the same day last year the temp was 7 deg higher, here today it was 35 deg in the shade, last year 42 deg.
There seems to be a drive by media and governments to prove that global climate change is causing this and after the covid crap we put up with, I am deeply suspicious of both.
High humidity certainly doesn't help but we plan our day accordingly as Benidorm does, early start taking dogs out, middle of the day we are indoors with aircon on, and late evening we go out for a drink after taking the dogs out again.
We still wouldn't swap it for UK -weren't they having a heatwave? What happened to that lol.

[costakid]

There seems to be a drive by media and governments to prove that global climate change is causing this and after the covid crap we put up with, I am deeply suspicious of both.

Frighten us all to death with Covid, then we were all going to get nuked by Putin and now we will all burn to death. The papers and news channels are a disgrace.

[Wicksey]

We still wouldn't swap it for UK -weren't they having a heatwave? What happened to that lol.

There must be a lot of Bits who decided to have a 'staycation' after last year's heatwave. Everyone was told that they were going to have summers like the Costa del Sol, but this year has been quite a washout. My FiL needed a hot water bottle in bed the other night he was so cold Definitely the press are stirring up the hysteria, fyfin, as you say and I said earlier, probably to back up the calls for net zero et al.

[jonbar.1]

I understand,now,that we may all die from "Bird-Flu" (once again.)
Although, I thought I heard a starling sneeze last week,so best get vaccinated asap.

[Lavanda]

Media driven drivel. Agree completely.

[Pamela1]

At Riofrio, our usual on route stop off to our house.It feels no hotter than any other year.It will be interesting to see how the temps go over the next 4 weeks..We stayed overnight in Malaga and to be honest ive know warmer nights at this time of year, it was very comfortable sleeping.

[Wicksey]

It has cooled down Pamela, compared to how it was when Mark started this thread. Temperatures thoughout the night in the mid 30s outside does not make sleeping easy. Last night it dropped to 21 and we woke up feeling freezing

[costakid]

At Riofrio, our usual on route stop off to our house.It feels no hotter than any other year.It will be interesting to see how the temps go over the next 4 weeks..We stayed overnight in Malaga and to be honest ive know warmer nights at this time of year, it was very comfortable sleeping.

My granddaughter was under the quilt cover last night and said she felt cold. Massive difference to 2 weeks ago.

[Lavanda]

Last night, I had to get a blanket and shut the doors it was so cool. Today is very much cooler.

I think there are definitely micro-climates in play with the temperatures people are experiencing. The Sierra de Montánchez to the north of where I live is having some sort of effect on the night time temperatures as the breeze is sometimes as much as 20ºC lower at night than in the day. Maybe the answer is to live near a mountain range?

[gavilan]

I live surrounded by mountains ... Sierra Tejeda and Sierra de Alhama ... dont think we have experienced any increase in rain nor decrease in heat/drought ... maybe they are the wrong sort of mountains?!

[Lavanda]