It's Winter Here. But not too Severe.

When people learn that we spend the winter in Cairo, they are usually curious about the weather and the cost of living.  We arrived during a cold snap this year.  The Cairo Post describes it this way:

CAIRO: Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) said that Saturday will witness a “severe cold wave” across the country, accompanied with heavy rainfall on the northern coast and Cairo.

What that means it that it got down to around 47 the past couple of mornings and only up to 58.  The biggest problem has been some light rain and morning fog.  About 98 percent of our days here are sunny, but this was the view across the street late yesterday morning.


There is a good picture of the waves coming in from the Mediterranean at Alexandria along with that  weather report.

When the fog lifts, the view has been pretty decent to the South.  Here are some of the oldest pyramids in Egypt as seen from our rear balcony.



The forecast is for slowly rising temperatures over the next week with highs back in the low seventies at the end of that time.  If you ever want to check on local conditions around us, this link should get you to a personal weather station a couple of miles from us.  If we ever get a hard-wired Internet connection in the apartment, I plan to install my own station.

Tonight we walked down to our favorite chicken restaurant to buy dinner.  We had been told that electric power outages were now a thing of the past, but the lights went out around six tonight, so we took the flashlight and the stairs down to the street.  Lights were out on our side of the street for about a half mile.


The chicken restaurant does a good business in take-away rotisserie chicken but also does kabobs and grilled chicken.  That is a pharmacy next door on the left.


I got a lesson in properly fanning the charcoal here from the owner who always recognizes us.  (Not very many other Americans stop here!)


We bought three half-chickens, grilled, along with salads and bread for about nine dollars.  Meanwhile, I went over to the nearby bakery and picked up four croissants and a pound of date-filled pastries for just under a dollar.  That should give you an idea of the cost of food.  Here was one of the half-chickens after we got back to the apartment.  The lights were back on by then.