It’s a great British past-time to complain about the weather – too wet, too cold, too windy, too foggy (the famous myth of London weather), or sometimes even too hot! These days it is also quite apparent that there are more extremes of weather around the globe, with both severe flooding, drought, extensive forest fires etc., now becoming much more commonplace.

Until early June our local weather had been pretty miserable. We had endured a cold, wet winter (actually quite normal for Galicia), which extended throughout the spring to the point where we almost had no spring at all. And then our summer suddenly arrived ! Since more or less the middle of June temperatures have been regularly reaching the mid-to-high 20’s, sometimes touching 30°C (mid 70’s to mid 80’s °F). This coming week we will start to exceed that. Of course we are lucky that we are only a few km the Ocean which helps to keep us a bit cooler. In the city of Ourense for example, which is located only about 60km further inland, the thermometer is now touching 40°C (over 100°F).