Spring has arrived and so have the rains. And don’t they always around Semana Santa! The Casares residents are not complaining. We need rain for our water deposits to fill up and for the fields to grow food for the goats and the sheeps. And why should we complain? We had a fantastic winter!
We’ve had so many days with temperatures around 18-20 ºC. These are so easy to get used to! The light, the sun, the relaxing afternoons on your terrace or in one of the chiringuitos on the beach that stay open all year round. We had a divine winter!
Average temperatures
December started ‘cold’ with temperatures around 13-14 ºC. They rose quickly though to 20ºC. The average in December was around 18ºC. In January the average was a bit lower, around 16,5ºC, going up to 17ºC in February and 18ºC in March. The end of March is when the rain started to fall in. Some days of light rain and some days of very heavy rain. The 12th of March we had an extreme amount of 62 mm of rain! The day after you could see several waterfalls coming down the Sierra Bermeja and there was a small river crossing my own plot of land. Those are the days that you are reminded to sort out the drainage around your house! The ‘arroyos’, water channels, that run dry most of the year do have a function!
Living in the mountains
People often ask what’s it like to live in the mountains under such weather circumstances and I would lie if I wouldn’t admit that I wasn’t too happy when I experienced my first thunderstorm in Andalusia. Nor was I pleased with the first torrential rains. It is ever going to stop! But then you realize that the roads are built for this, and the drainage system around your house actually works and takes the water stream away from your villa. The electricity might go down for a few hours, you learn to live with that as well because it is all well compensated by the gorgeous sunny days that will always follow these rains.
Anita Schmidt | 5th April 2013
