Friday, September 18, 2009

Paraguay's Two Seasons: HOT and Not Quite As Hot

As today's high hit 94 wonderful degrees, I realized that Spring has officially hit Paraguay. Even though the new season doesn't officially start until next Tuesday (Sept. 22), the oppressing heat has returned to remind everyone that even more oppressive summer heat is just around the corner. And in that brief description are Paraguay's two seasons: HOT and Not Quite As Hot.

The summer months--December, January, and February--are unbearably hot. Temperatures average at least mid 90s during the day (with most days above 100) and, at the lowest, mid 80s at night. Humidity never breaks, not even for a day and not even when it rains. When it does rain, outside feels like a steam bath. March and April offer no respite from the heat. Days might dip into the low 90s but the nights are still just as hot. May is the first month where the glimmer of cooler weather starts to emerge. But by 'cooler weather' I mean temps in the 80s. I guess cool is a relative term. Winter, described below, ushers in Paraguay's second season. Once those all too short three months are over, it's back to the season of HOT. Thanks, September, for reminding us that Paraguay hasn't forgotten how to turn the streets of Asunción into an oven.

I must admit that Cat and I enjoyed a nice three month reprieve: June, July, and August. Aside from a few cold nights where the mercury registered the low 40s, the temperature still averaged in the 70s during the day and 50s at night. Coming from constant triple digit highs and lows in the mid 80s, highs in the 70s were incredible. And we felt nice and cool.

Unfortunately, Cat and I won't see those nice, cool temps until December when we return to the States and Northern Hemisphere winter. Texas will be going through its own version of Not Quite As Hot and Cat and I will take full advantage of it. Plus, we'll have air conditioning everywhere we go, be it in a house, a car, a store, a restaurant, everywhere! Oh, the possibilities are endless.

5 comments:

  1. Saw your post about the visa requirements. Thanks man, really helped me a lot. I just came here to Asunción and the only information i got was in Spanish. Do you have any more good tips about the visas? If you want to you can email me at heenrik@hotmail.com. I would really appreciate it.

    Thanks
    Henrik Andersson

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  2. Hi there, I really like your blog. Mi name is Manuel, I'm an argentinian living in Py since 1990. I stumbled into your blog while googling the McDonalds delivery number, and I laughed a lot reading your posts. A little fun fact about the weather: As you may know, the seasons in spanish are called “estaciones”, as in “stations”. So there's an old phrase that goes “In Paraguay, there are only two stations: Summer and the train's”. Cheers and good luck.

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  3. "...Summer and the trains." That's perfect! I am glad you enjoyed my posts. And thanks for reading, although it's kind of funny you found my blog searching for a McDonald's delivery number. It must have been my "McEntrega" post.

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  4. i am quoting you on your saying for the seasonsand in spanish that would be En Paraguay hay dos estaciones, El verano y del tren. thought that was interesting though

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  5. Thank you, Rosalindahagen, for reading and commenting. I imagine the "stations" in Paraguay are still as hot as ever. Again, thank you for reading.

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