Re: COLD
 

Gets pretty bad in Scotland.....

Here it's dropping to a chilly 12 at night. You can take the UK climate and stick it where the monkey put his nuts. ;)

Re: COLD
 

Excluding the coastal belts from Gib to the Costa Blanca, it is doubtful if the remaining 90% of Spain has any great advantage over the UK in the Wintertime.
As for the Summer there's a lot to be said for being comfortable and active as against sweltering and sheltering from unbearable heat.
For me,the best thing about Spanish weather is the earlier Springtime and comfortable Autumn.

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-1 here this morning.

Freeeeeeezing!!!!!!!

Looks like even Plymouth is warmer with a balmy 4 degrees.

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Nice debating technique Jacky!
If work runs out here I may well look abroad again. but for now London is good for me, and it's quite a good place to live. Shame you can't live here since you dislike Spain so much.

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I'd say the Costa de la Luz definitely has it over the UK. So far this winter we have had one night when the temp almost hit zero.

All the rest here the cold nights have so far been mostly about 10 C with a few between 5 & 10. There's been a lot in the last month that have been 15+.

Usually we are unlucky if we get 5 frosty nights. Last year we had just one.

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... -7 this morning when we went to take the children to school:thumbdown:

Re: COLD
 

The point is that most expats tend to compare the most favourable coastal areas of Spain, with the worst areas of the UK.

Taking Spain as a whole the contrast is not so great, in fact many parts of Spain have had more snow than the UK in recent years.

I imagine if ppl previously living in the UK had a choice, they might have chosen the soft South-West or even the Scilly isles as against living in a cold Northern city or amongst the Scottish mountains.

I have always found a far greater contrast between mainland Spain and the much more favourable Canaries, than between mainland Spain and the UK.

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Well, yeah but you didn't include the south atlantic coastline, so I thought I would.

My climatic preferences are such that I would take the Cádiz province over any part of the UK, winter or summer.

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I would agree with that, the best times to visit Spain...when the spring flowers are something else and the autumn that extends the warm weather just that bit longer...to be truthful I do not mind the clear cold weather as long as it is warm and cozy inside, what I do not like is dark cloudy days and the short winter days, you get that in both countries.. roll on the 21st.

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Yeah, but there is still a massive difference. The dark cloudy days you hate are very common in UK summers. I have seen Augusts where the sun made so little showing, we were lighting fires at night.

UK weather where we were (Cambs) was completely vile. In the last 5 summers we were there, there were only 15 or so summer days when the sun shone all day.

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Forget about the winter - the last few years we were living in the U.K. (on the south coast in one of the warmest areas in the U.K.) we had terrible summers - very few warm sunny days. And as for further north in the U.K. - we have visited relatives in August and they had their central heating on! In Spain, certainly on the Costa Blanca where we live, at least you are guaranteed some decent summer weather.

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Karma on its way for that. I think a lot of people are in denial about the UK weather. Some because they don't want to accept that the UK has anything other than 'perfect' weather, and others because they actually don't look at the weather accurately.

I got so fed up with people telling me I exaggerated, I started keeping a weather diary, so I could demonstrate what I said was for real. Even I was amazed by how bad it was.

I noticed that if the sun shone for more than 5 minutes, people would all say 'Isn't it a lovely day?' No, no, no, no. It is a shit day, grey, wet and miserable, and the sun has shone for precisely half an hour.

On the other hand, given that the weather is so reliably crap, half an hour's sun actually defined a good day.

That is just so depressing.

I get more perfect sunny days here in Autumn than I did all year long in the UK.

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Dropped to 10c at the moment, bloody frozen.:eek:

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Yeah, us too. How I envy the UK with their warm, sunny weather......

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No one will ever convince me that August in Spain is better than August in the UK.
The weather may be variable but at least it's not unbearable.

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.....and snug as a bug in a rug, in their lovely, warm, cosy, fully carpeted, purpose designed, double glazed, well insulated, centrally heated homes, with proper English pubs just around the corner.

It has it's compensations, especially when there's not too much sunbathing and swimming going on down on the Costas right now, and most Spanish houses can leave much to be desired, when the temps drop down towards single figures

Re: COLD
 

Yes same here inland in Alora, with that north wind coming at us it is bloody cold at only 10c here, last week it was 22c every day!

Being inland it's a few degrees cooler in winter and hotter in summer than on the coast, the way to cope with both is to do as the locals do especially in summer, have siestas and eat much later and most important in the summer.....don't be so British...stay out of the sun!
In winter we go outside to warm up in the daytime and have a cosy log burner in the evenings, in the summer heat we go inside where it's cooler and put the air conditioning on.

It may not be the perfect climate all year round, but no way would I want to go back to those endless grey and miserable days in the UK even with central heating, I'd much rather wear more layers of clothing! :thumbup:

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And isn't it just wonderful here in Spain that we can say to family and friends.....we'll have a BBQ three weeks on Sunday.....and we can almost guarantee that the sun will shine? :thumbsup:

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Maybe not very wise to count your chickens untill they're BBQd. :unsure:

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ooh yes, it was so cold here last night that I had to go to the extraordinary lengths of putting the gas fire on medium setting instead of the usual low, it was hell.

In fact the outside temperature when we got up this morning (at 9.30 am, we're not early risers) was only 4C. But it's a nice clear sunny day, we will warm up by going for a 5km walk to the coast and reward ourselves with lunch by the sea. Thus undoing all the good work of the exercise, of course.:)

We are certainly going to see some rain over the weekend according to the forecasts, but looks as though it will not be as heavy as was being predicted earlier in the week. May see some snow as well - but only on top of the mountains visible from my roof terrace, and it can stay there! Quite pretty when observed from that distance.

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SNOW! YAY!!!

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I'm with you! I´ve always said I´ll be far warmer here than most in Spain. Someone here recommends extra layers of clothing, and huddled around the wood burner, that really sounds like good living! :) I seem to remember people here complaining after months of rain last year in Spain, wishing it would stop. And I don´t suffer the mould, the damp, that always features in these forums. Summers? TBH, I know of very few in Spain that do exploit the good weather, most seem to spend their time seeking out shade, somewhere cool, trying to cool down or driving in a/c cars to a/c shopping centres, bars, restaurants etc. How many actually spend the day on the beach, walking in the mountains? Give me a couple of good weeks in the spring/autumn in inland Spain, and I'm happy as Larry, but the 35º'- 40º+, you can keep for me.
But the best of it is, we're all different, we´ve all made the right decision, we´re all perfectly happy with the area we've chosen to live in. Aren´t we?:confused:

Re: COLD
 

What in January? :rofl: Álora must have changed a bit since I was last there.;)

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As I said, it doesn't do to count your chickens,
You could even be building snowmen by then. :blink:

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January I can sit on the beach in shirtsleeves.
August I sit in the shade.

In between I lie in the sun.

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Yeh, OK Bil. :thumbup:
http://weather.weatherbug.co.uk/Spai...&lang_id=en-gb

Re: COLD
 

Good lord! It's going to rain. It never occurred to me that it might rain here. It was bad enough when I realised that the sun didn't shine 24 hours a day. How will I ever cope with this?

Let's see now. So far this autumn, we have had one night that almost got down to freezing, 5 or 6 that reached 5, and the rest have been 10 - 18C.

That's minimum temps boys and girls!

I have, in December this year had more perfect sunny days than I had in the whole of the summer of 2009 when I was in the UK. Ditto November.

Of how I envy you the perfect climate you enjoy in the UK.

Tell me, what's the energy costs of the lovely central heated house that you need to have in the UK? (Cos if it were'nt centrally heated, you'd be slitting your wrists after a couple of months.)

I was bitching that my electric bill had gone up a bit over the last two years to a friend in the UK, and he offered to trade me his bills with mine sight unseen!

Do you think I should? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Re: COLD
 

We don't have the perfect climate, never claimed to have, you're the one that claims to have found Shangi La, you're the one that seems totally obsessed with the weather. As regards UK weather, we do far better than many other parts of the UK, many parts are taking a hammering, so far we are OK, long may it continue. Snow is forecast though, we'll see. My son is in Heathrow at the moment, trying to get to Dubai, and he says loads of people have been told to go home, it chaos.
Heating costs? I honestly haven't a clue, nor do I have to worry about it, it's not an expense that concerns me. I'd rather pay whatever it costs to keep the house warm than be rattling around in an ice box.
Just mentioned Vejer to my wife, and she said that's where we had all that horrendous rain in April. How could she forget!
Anyway, I'll leave to you tell us all about your weather, it'll give you something to do when you are not counting your euros.

Re: COLD
 

Tell me, what's the energy costs of the lovely central heated house that you need to have in the UK? (Cos if it were'nt centrally heated, you'd be slitting your wrists after a couple of months.)



Ditto without air con in Spain in summer?

Re: COLD
 

As far as I am concerned, the cost of central heating in the UK in winter or the air con in Spain in summer is irrelevant.

It is a living expense, a necessity like food, you have to pay what you have to pay, because to cut down spoils quality of life.

Re: COLD
 

Swings and roundabouts.

Many Spanish will have Summertime electric bills as high as the Winter ones, from their aircon units which lots of them consider essential these days.

Plus not many ppl in the UK need truckloads of expensive timber and associated hassle, plus cumbersome gas cylinders to repeatedly deal with, in order to try and maintain a reasonable temperature in poorly designed and badly insulated houses.
In addition I notice a lot of Spanish are now fitting expensive oil burning units and storage tanks. They may save a bit of graft, but still cost arms and legs to run.

For me it's much cheaper to use my UK house in mid-Winter, use the Spanish one Autumn and Spring when the temps are reasonable, then clear off out again to more comfortable temps. in June, before I get roasted like a Christmas turkey.
Variety is the spice.:thumbsup:

Re: COLD
 

Only some Brits need aircon, when in Spain keep your house cool the same way as the Spanish do. ;);)

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Ah, that'll be the ones with brains then? We have aircon, but by god we don't use it a lot. Our A/C bill added to our energy spend is way waaayyy lower than our energy bill was in the uK, that's for sure.

Re: COLD
 

Sorry dear, did I touch a nerve? I never claim here is perfect, just that it is for me, one hell of a lot better than the UK. Sure, we had a lot of rain last winter. While we were sitting watching TV in the warm, it used to add a certain extra joy in that we didn't have to go out in it. Actually the rain was far worse in the period before April!

I'm sure you are well off enough to be able to spend money like water to keep warm. For many of us tho, we do have to keep an eye on what we spend.

Re: COLD
 

That's odd, I seem to remember needing truckloads of wood in the UK to keep warm, or was that an alternative reality? We had two gas cylinders for cooking, just as I have here.

Poorly designed houses? How many houses in the UK are almost uninsulated?

Our house here is built along the East/West axis, with covered terrace and windows arranged so that the sun doesn't shine in. Beautifully designed to keep cool passively.

Re: COLD
 

Well I'm a hardy Lancashire lass! ;)
Even in winter we eat lunch out on the terrace most days often cooked on the BBQ, not this week I grant you as we have the cold north wind blowing, but last week was 22c every day.
Even when it's cold here the sky is usually blue, it makes you feel so much better seeing sunshine instead of grey sky.

As I said before, it's not a perfect climate.....but I'm very happy here and I have no desire at all to go back to England. :D

Re: COLD
 

In that case we will put a coat on like the locals do. ;)

We have had some brilliant BBQs with family and Spanish friends in the winter months here, on a sunny day and with a few beers or red wines down your throat it doesn't feel cold. :D

Re: COLD
 

Me too! :thumbup:

Re: COLD
 

I'll drink to that.

I have a suspicion that those who return to the UK will often defend their decision to the hilt, even if that means saying things like 'The UK has a perfect climate' as one character did. I can understand someone saying 'I don't like heat, the Spanish climate got me down and it was such a relief to get back to a more temperate climate.'

That is a logical, understandable comment, and I can't fault it.

However, I know what the UK climate is like, and its temperate climate maent for me that there was almost unending grey skies.

By all means tell me you are happy there, and feel free to say you prefer a more temperate climate.

I will drink to your health and be glad that you have 'Found a better hole'.

Just don't spin me a line that the UK climate is anything other than Grey, with a little sunshine as seasoning.

In the wonderful words of someone else on this board, 'Don't piss up my back and tell me it's raining.'

Re: COLD
 

You will find that the main topic of conversation from the Gallegos is the weather (apart from food that is) just like in the UK.
And they usually are moaning about the cold and the wet just like folks in the UK do.

Most expats choose the hotter parts of Spain, in fact lots of expats dont even know that there are coastal areas of Spain that are cold. Most British people presume that the only cold places in Spain are skiing resorts up in the mountains.

Sheep farmers in Segovia, pig farmers in Galicia have more in common with a British farmer than they do with an olive or orange grower in the south.

Also most of the Spanish population DONT live in the sunnier parts, they usually live where they were born or their families are.

I can guarantee that a family in Galicia, has a harder time heating their house in the winter than keeping it cool in the summer. just like in the UK- and if they want to be confortable in their own home, also have a large bill to pay.

And speaking through wide experience I can honestly say that when the cold weather hits, it is better to have a temperature a few degrees lower in the UK than a higher temp. in Galicia, it is a lot more bearable and pleasant in the UK at times like that.

We have chosen to live in the sunnier part, because we can, like a lot of others on here, but I know that if I had to live through the winter in Galicia, I would be back in the UK, sharpish.