Opposite Seasons
Let me give you a little geography review. All of North America is in the Northern
Hemisphere. Most of South America is in
the Southern Hemisphere. Colombia and
Venezuela, which are on the Caribbean Coast, are in South America, but in the Northern Hemisphere. Through the heart of South America is the
invisible line called the Equator. That
is how Ecuador got its name. In English
it is Equator and it is split by the Equator. Bolivia is south of the Equator.
What does that mean?
Well, it means we have opposite seasons.
While the Northern Hemisphere, including the USA, Canada, and Europe,
are enjoying summer, the Southern Hemisphere is in Winter. When the weather in the US starts to get
cold, we will be entering summer in Bolivia.
Bolivia is not too far south of the Equator. It is about as far south of the Equator as
the Caribbean is as far north of the Equator.
Neither gets very cold in winter.
What you can expect in a Bolivian winter is milder
days. The nights might slip into the 60s
(jacket or long-sleeve weather), and during the day it is in the low 80s. Occasionally it can get colder, like
today. I woke up to a temperature of 52,
clouds, and a stiff breeze. It felt
cold. We are expecting this weather for
about 3 more days. Then it will be back
to normal.
Like in Texas, where the daffodils will often bloom in
February, or even in January, Santa Cruz, Bolivia has things in bloom. The grass isn’t growing and a select few
trees have lost their leaves. But spring
is not that far away. It has been nearly
30 years since I experienced a Bolivian spring, but I remember the trees were
every color of the rainbow.
When Texas, and the rest of North America enters their
Autumn, and the leaves are turning pretty colors, Santa Cruz, Bolivia rapidly
enters summer time. The summer here gets
hot. Not long ago I looked up an article
about the weather in Santa Cruz and it showed that 95 is about as hot as it
gets in the summer. There is a reason
for that. Santa Cruz, Bolivia is not too
far from the Equator and that means days and nights are about the same all year
long, roughly 12 hours each. In winter
the sun starts to set around 5:30 and in the summer around 6:30. In Texas, the
days are long and there is more time to build up the heat, so it never cools
enough at night. Here it cools off, so
days are at most in the low 90s. I remember from the past that there always
seemed to be a breeze at night.
After Christmas, the rainy season begins. Probably 3 out of 5 days it can rain. The rains always help to cool things off, but
brings a lot of humidity.
On this cold winter day of temperatures in the 50s, the sun
just struggled to push through the clouds.
I love winter.
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