Winter Arrived in Cairo Yesterday

We seldom pay much attention to the weather here.  In the past three weeks the temperatures have varied between 49 and 73 degrees.  For us that means a sweater at night and short sleeves on our morning walk.  All but one day has been sunny.

Yesterday, we decided to head out in a southerly direction for a half-mile to a new "supermarket" that has opened along the road to Sakarra.  As soon as we were outside, we knew the weather was a problem.  The wind had picked up to about 15 or 20 mph.  In Egypt, that means sand and dust in the air.  We forged ahead in spite of limited visibility.


Besides sand, a breeze like that also picks up the ubiquitous trash on the side of every street and starts moving it around too.  Paper and plastic bags become airborne.


After exploring the store, we headed outside to find that the wind had died down and a very light rain had begun to fall.  Not enough to get us wet in fifteen minutes, mind you.  But the temperature had fallen from about 64 to 60.  And that was winter.  I'm not expecting much sympathy from anyone back home in the Twin Cities where I understand that the ice now lies thick on the streets and sidewalks.  Today the temperature was back in the upper 60s.