weird weather

[gavilan]

a week ago it was cold here ... unusually cold ... daytime around 12 and dropped to 6 at night ... then suddenly ... yesterday temp was 24 daytime ... and is heading that way today ... tomorrow forecast 27 and Tuesday 26 ... weird eather!!!

[Supersue]

Two day spike and you've had your lot

[Wicksey]

You say unusually cold, gavilan, but years back there used to be rain and it was cold enough for snow in early November. We often used to have our first log fires in late October. We're much closer to the coast but have had snow and frosts here in years gone by. Who knows what is 'normal' these days! It was the hottest November on record I think, and no rain recorded at Malaga airport the entire month I read in Sur.

[gavilan]

Wicksey wrote: Who knows what is 'normal' these days! ... ! totally agree!

[Lavanda]

We have had a wet Autumn and wet Winter. Wet enough to please the farmers, anyway. Nature always sorts things out. If left alone to do it.

[olive]

That is true. Southern Spain-is experiencing desertification but most folk are in denial.

We haven’t seen any vultures here for some yeas now. Less cuckoos.

[Wicksey]

Although we've had a little rain this week, it won't make any difference to the reservoirs.

Once again our neighbour Paco, who sells us agricultural water, has used it all on his courgettes and mango trees so we have run out. The 350m3 tank is supposed to be just for us and our German neighbours, and between us, that would last us a year. In the summer he can empty that in 5 weeks. We monitor his meter and can see how much water he is putting in, but of course, have no idea what he is using. So thankfully we now have our own 5m3 deposito as back up but, as yet, Paco has not put the mains on to refill his main tank. We presume his supply is also been restricted, although the amount of fruit trees that have been planted in the past year, and land terraced nearby, is still huge.

Other neighbours in the river valley with a traditional well ran out ages ago and are relying on deliveries. Of course the price of delivered water has doubled, and their usual supplier quoted 196€ for 5m2 last year so I think they've found someone else now. We are concerned for our future here as we cannot live like this as we could not irrigate the garden from delivered water, and as it is we are being extra careful at the moment as to what we use in the house (which we usually are anyway, we never waste any).

[Enrique]

Hi Wicksey,
Do you collect rain water from your Roof ...........

[gavilan]

?what rain?!!! ... ventusky weather site has forecast heavy rain here several times in this last week ... so far we have had 0.9mm !!!

[Lavanda]

Since I posted earlier today I can report streams bursting banks, caminos underwater, fords flooded but, probably not much in the reservoirs …

[gavilan]

Lavanda ...really good to hear there is some rain over your way ...hope no damage to anybody ...?maybe we in the Axarquia should organise some tankers to come collect your excess water and bring down here?!

[Enrique]

Hi,
In December 2023 our water storage tanks didn't have any trouble filling seventeen thousand litre water butts from the roof.

[gavilan]

Enrique ... to me that sounds like a substaniial amount of rain water collected!!! ... havent seen rain like that for 4 years or more here!

Partner was out walking a couple of weeks ago ... exploring the Rio Sabar near Alfarnatejo, just west of here, beautiful area and the river used to gush down in a gorge between the mountains ... when he saw it recently, it was nearly dry with a few stagnant pools ... farmers had inserted plastic pipes in those pools and were desperately siphoming off remaining water

and here in our Rio Alcaucin, farmers have built a second dam (from sandbags) to try to make a pool from original dam seepage and a couple of nearby springs ... I expect to see plastic pipes siphoning off remaining water ... like in Rio Sabar

[Lavanda]

Someone should apply to the EU for a grant to organise water and land management classes for your local farmers. They do not sound quite right.

[olive]

Someone should apply to the EU for a grant to organise water and land management classes for your local farmers. They do not sound quite right.

They of course would argue differently. We are getting the most out of our land and thus are paying taxes and bringing wealth to the area. If you are going to get EU grants can we have more water please?

Agriculture is the lifeblood away from the Costas.

[Wicksey]

Hi Wicksey,
Do you collect rain water from your Roof ...........

As Gavilan says, what rain? We now write 'rain' on our calendar if we get anything more than a light shower and that only appeared 11 times during the whole of 2023.

When we first bought in Spain, we had no water supply at all. We put up gutters and set up collection tanks and pumps and could live off collected rain water for 8 months of the year. That was between 1996, after the 5 year drought had just broken, until we moved away in 2004. We used to get monsoon-like rains. It could rain torrentially for a week and we witnessed pools slipping down the hillside and a lot of damage to houses and tracks.

Nowadays, on the two sides we do not have gutters, we put the wheelbarrow and various buckets under the edge of the roof. (The gutters run into a land rain already here.) Usually we are lucky to get half a bucket load and that's on a 'rain' day. If the weather comes from the west it peters out before it gets to us, or it goes inland around the mountains behind our house . They say that Torrox has the 'best climate in Europe', and I would say one of the driest. About two hours ago we had a real old fashioned downpour that lasted all of 10 minutes. It was enough to come in through the conservatory roof and corners of the windows, but then it just stopped and we haven't had anything more since.

[El Cid]

The rain usually ends up going over the mountains rather than keep along the coast. Today we have had 0.8mm. Nerja has had about 5mm and inland Cómpeta has had 9mm. The Torrox climate story is a PR myth that won’t go away. Its weather is no different from its neighbours!

Sid

[gavilan]

the farmers around here only care about getting enough water to keep their avocado and mango trees alive and productive ... and thus their bank accounts too

and as Wicksey commented, we had a real old fashioned downpour about an hour or so ago ... lasted 10 mins and then vanished ... got another one similar now!!!

[Wicksey]

The Torrox climate story is a PR myth that won’t go away. Its weather is no different from its neighbours!

Sid

That was tongue in cheek! When we used have monsoons of rain, we used to see that sign and laugh

[El Cid]

The mayor who commissioned the survey years ago certainly got his money's worth!

Sid