Charles, we're so tired of just seeing pictures of people who are leaving. Seriously, if we wanted to see pictures of strangers in a cafe, we could just go to a cafe. Are you so boring as to have nothing else to share? Come on!
Fine, fine. Fair point. I'm not going to lie. I get a bit lazy on Saturday/Sunday and just try to crank these out as quickly as possible. Can't guarantee I won't still do that this week, but I will talk about something besides people leaving. Something way more interesting. Something to just grab your attention and not let go...the weather [sound of everyone falling asleep].
So the rainy season stepped up into high gear end of June / beginning of July. I've got to say that in general, I've been disappointed. You've got to understand; people build up the rainy season here like it's the coming apocalypse. "Just wait until July. Everything you've seen up to now has been light. The real rain is coming." Well? Don't get me wrong, it does occasionally rain hard. For example, it's really hard to see in the pictures below (and as we've discovered several times, there's no way I can load a video from here), but it's coming down pretty good in the first picture and it's hailing in the second picture.
People were also right that almost everything becomes crazy muddy here, but that's why I bought some crazy rain boots in the Merkato market. Quick side note: While I haven't yet taken a picture (and I refuse to dress up in it just for a picture), I do look rather strange walking to/from work. I'm wearing gray rubber/plastic boots that come up to mid-calf. I wear a white bandanna on my head as a hat, and I wear a blue $0.30 construction mask from Walmart since the car exhaust is just absolutely outrageous here. When you combine that with my beard, I really must be a sight. Ethiopians like to laugh / mock people who are dressed even a little differently, so I like to think of myself as bringing joy to the lives of the dozens of people I pass on the way to and from work :)
The drainage system also isn't fantastic here, so if it rains hard for 20-30 minutes, you can end up with what you see below (right in front of my workplace). The boots become super necessary when you literally wade across the street/river with 6+ inches of water.
Despite all this, it seems rather tame compared to expectations. Some of that may be that (1) it isn't overcast all day and (2) the rain is often pretty localized. I kind of expected the "rainy season" to be something like Seattle weather (or at least the Seattle weather reputation) and it would at least drizzle most of the day and you wouldn't see the sun for several days. There's a reason Ethiopia is called the land of 13 months of sunshine (the calendar here is twelve 30-day months with a 5-day thirteenth month in normal years and a 6-day thirteenth month in leap years). The typical daily schedule during the rainy season seems to be really bright and sunny in the morning, overcast starting around 2-3 pm, rain for 30-60 minutes between 3-6 pm, and maybe a bit more rain about 25-50% of the time in the middle of the night.
I'm also used to Midwestern US thunderstorms where when it rains, the entire sky is black with rolling clouds as far as you can see. Here, you'll frequently see blue sky near you even when it's raining. Below, the building blocks out some of the blue sky, but you get the idea.
Clearly, I'm not the only one confused by Addis weather. For some reason, weather.com always thinks it's WAY hotter in Addis than it is. For example, on July 18, at the time I looked these up, it was actually 62 degrees Fahrenheit in Addis (picture #1), but weather.com said it was 99 degrees Fahrenheit (picture #2). Trust me, it was 62. The strange thing is the first source for picture #1 (what pops up in the Google search results) is The Weather Channel, which powers weather.com (as you can see from the top left of picture #2).
None of this is to complain. It's not a bad thing that there's sun most of the time and that the temperature is always nicely moderate. Just goes to show the importance of appropriate expectations.
To make clear how nice the weather is in Addis, on July 18 (when weather.com mistakenly thought 62 degree weather was 99 degree weather), it looks like it was pretty close to 90-something degrees in much of the US. Hope you had fun with that ;)
Fine, fine. Fair point. I'm not going to lie. I get a bit lazy on Saturday/Sunday and just try to crank these out as quickly as possible. Can't guarantee I won't still do that this week, but I will talk about something besides people leaving. Something way more interesting. Something to just grab your attention and not let go...the weather [sound of everyone falling asleep].
So the rainy season stepped up into high gear end of June / beginning of July. I've got to say that in general, I've been disappointed. You've got to understand; people build up the rainy season here like it's the coming apocalypse. "Just wait until July. Everything you've seen up to now has been light. The real rain is coming." Well? Don't get me wrong, it does occasionally rain hard. For example, it's really hard to see in the pictures below (and as we've discovered several times, there's no way I can load a video from here), but it's coming down pretty good in the first picture and it's hailing in the second picture.
People were also right that almost everything becomes crazy muddy here, but that's why I bought some crazy rain boots in the Merkato market. Quick side note: While I haven't yet taken a picture (and I refuse to dress up in it just for a picture), I do look rather strange walking to/from work. I'm wearing gray rubber/plastic boots that come up to mid-calf. I wear a white bandanna on my head as a hat, and I wear a blue $0.30 construction mask from Walmart since the car exhaust is just absolutely outrageous here. When you combine that with my beard, I really must be a sight. Ethiopians like to laugh / mock people who are dressed even a little differently, so I like to think of myself as bringing joy to the lives of the dozens of people I pass on the way to and from work :)
The drainage system also isn't fantastic here, so if it rains hard for 20-30 minutes, you can end up with what you see below (right in front of my workplace). The boots become super necessary when you literally wade across the street/river with 6+ inches of water.
Despite all this, it seems rather tame compared to expectations. Some of that may be that (1) it isn't overcast all day and (2) the rain is often pretty localized. I kind of expected the "rainy season" to be something like Seattle weather (or at least the Seattle weather reputation) and it would at least drizzle most of the day and you wouldn't see the sun for several days. There's a reason Ethiopia is called the land of 13 months of sunshine (the calendar here is twelve 30-day months with a 5-day thirteenth month in normal years and a 6-day thirteenth month in leap years). The typical daily schedule during the rainy season seems to be really bright and sunny in the morning, overcast starting around 2-3 pm, rain for 30-60 minutes between 3-6 pm, and maybe a bit more rain about 25-50% of the time in the middle of the night.
I'm also used to Midwestern US thunderstorms where when it rains, the entire sky is black with rolling clouds as far as you can see. Here, you'll frequently see blue sky near you even when it's raining. Below, the building blocks out some of the blue sky, but you get the idea.
Clearly, I'm not the only one confused by Addis weather. For some reason, weather.com always thinks it's WAY hotter in Addis than it is. For example, on July 18, at the time I looked these up, it was actually 62 degrees Fahrenheit in Addis (picture #1), but weather.com said it was 99 degrees Fahrenheit (picture #2). Trust me, it was 62. The strange thing is the first source for picture #1 (what pops up in the Google search results) is The Weather Channel, which powers weather.com (as you can see from the top left of picture #2).
None of this is to complain. It's not a bad thing that there's sun most of the time and that the temperature is always nicely moderate. Just goes to show the importance of appropriate expectations.
To make clear how nice the weather is in Addis, on July 18 (when weather.com mistakenly thought 62 degree weather was 99 degree weather), it looks like it was pretty close to 90-something degrees in much of the US. Hope you had fun with that ;)
Nice to hear the rainy season is not as terrible as it sounds. And it is true that hearing about something new is refreshing, but no matter what you post it's nice to see something every week. I look forward to hearing about your time on the field!
ReplyDeleteWhat an exciting post! I love weather! I am a farmer's daughter. One of my favorite things is to curl up in front of The Weather Channel as a wicked cold front passes through in the hot summer. No fireworks are better than nature's own fireworks. So you see, I love weather!
ReplyDeleteI love your description of the walking to work outfit. It brought me joy as well. I was also surprised by Tacoma weather. After midwest storms, a bit of light rain followed by sun everyday just doesn't make me feel like it is "always raining".
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