A weather report

If you ever wanted a cushy job, become a weather forecaster in The Gambia. Most of the time the forecast would be the same, sunny and hot with no chance of rain. That may be why the Gambia TV news doesn't have a weather forecast. Of course during the rainy season, the forecast would change slightly to hot and humid with a chance of showers. We do have occasional changes in the weather, but so seldom that they are more like events- dust storms, electrical storms, wind and heavy rains. When things like that happen though, we talk about it for days. Of course, we also comment on the heat and the cold and every other slight variation of weather as well. I guess we are easily entertained.

Anyway, yesterday I was noticing what a perfect day it was. The sky was "postcard blue" and a comfortable 92 degrees in the shade. In the sun was a different story. This close to the equator, even the February sun can be pretty intense. I took the thermometer outside and held it in the sun for only a few minutes and watched the temperature zoom from 92 degrees to 112 degrees. Is it any wonder that Gambians and those of us who live here, make it a point to be in the shade if at all possible? In my house, it was a cool 80-85 most of the day. Then the cool ocean breezes started in the evening. (We are about 15 miles inland, but the land is so flat, the ocean breezes reach us very nicely.) By morning it was about 68 degrees outside (brrr) and a chilly 75 degrees in the house. Nice sleeping weather! When it's that cool we cuddle under comforters to sleep and if we have to be outside for any length of time, we wear sweatshirts.

We are heading into some of the hottest days of the year (April). I will try to record some of our hottest temps. with pictures of the thermometer in case you don't believe me. I don't usually notice it being hot until it's over 100 degrees unless it is also humid, but it doesn't usually get humid until May.