Weathering the Bogotá weather

Rain? Sun? Hail? In his latest column on some of the

idiosyncrasies of life here, Gerald Barr says your guess
on Bogotá weather is as good as his.

After several years in the city, I am still getting my head around the Bogotá weather. Just
when I think I have learned the pattern of drizzle, torrential rain and warm sun – like
some never-ending late spring in Scotland – some new meteorological phenomenon
throws a spanner in the works, such as El Niño (the boy-child) or his sister La Niña, (the
girl).

I’m not complaining about the Bogotá weather. Actually, I love the climate; it is often
refreshing, invigorating and dramatic. I just want to understand it better. This comes
from many years of living in the windswept British Isles, stuck out in the Atlantic where
the TV weather forecast is watched more than the news and being properly prepared for
the elements is a national obsession. Our house hallways were always decked out like
minor lifeboat stations with rubber boots and heavy-duty rain-gear.

Related – The writing’s on the wall

In contrast, people in Bogotá have a fairly relaxed attitude towards the climate, rarely
preparing themselves fully for rainfall and looking down a little bit on those who do. I
realized this when collecting my daughter from school in a downpour in clothes that can
only be described as apocalyptic. I was wearing bright yellow industrial rubber boots (for
oil rig workers, I think, but the only ones in my size) and a bright yellow cycle cape.

The other parents cowering from the rain in the entrance porch laugh as I wade across
the road, now a river, towards their location. “You came well prepared”, someone jibes as
I join them on the porch, shedding even more water over their white sneakers and Velez
leather shoes. In Bogotá, looking good takes precedent over staying dry.

But I suspect it is also because in Bogotá, more than any city I have ever been in, there
are many months of the year where the weather gods play endless tricks on the humans
below them by sending grey clouds scudding across the horizon like angry battleships
then – bingo – out pops the sun. Then of course, comes an unexpected blast of icy rain
from behind the mountain on an otherwise sunny day.

Related – Colombia’s truck strike: The truck stops here

This uncertainty is hardly surprising given the geographic location of the city, close to an
Andean ridge that divides the sweaty Magdalena valley from the sweltering plains of the
Orinoco. Hot air laden with moisture rides up the slopes to engage in what can only be
called meteorological hand-to-hand combat with the cooler mountain air; a struggle you
can witness from just about anywhere in Bogotá if you look above the green ridges to the
east of the city.

Warm fronts push and shove to cross the divide, but are buffered back by winds from the
east. Clouds can dump rain or just disappear in the high dry air as quickly as they
formed. Like many battles, the drama has no predictable outcome. In the end, many
people living here just think, sod it, no point looking like a plunked in a rain cape just in
case.

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Weathering the Bogotá weather.

post.
Keywords.

Rain, sun, hall, droughts, floods.

Some people still getting their heads around the Bogotá weather.

There are several climatic phenomena, but I am only going to talk about two specific ones that do
not only affect Bogotá city.

Such a (the boy child), who brings droughts then floods, and (the girl) who brings floods than
droughts.

It’s difficult to understand these phenomena and their behavior in nature, some years change the
months and confuse us more, and not only that but they leave great damage to our planet, these
two phenomena affect and help at the same time, the boy child brings water but heightened the girl
brings drought but dries a lot and our crops.

Not to know more about this family, it two phenomena are destructive, you imagine the rest of the
family, let’s leave it like that for now.

People in here Bogotá are used to his climate change, thus for they are easier because they live in
here climate for months. Meanwhile, the other people that are the other places come here but they
need more time to adapt.

The geographical location and the climate change of Bogotá are because close to an Andean
ridge that divides the sweaty Magdalena valley from the sweltering plains of the Orinoco. It’s
extremely interesting how phenomena combine to maintain warm climate.

Some places in here Bogotá are hot, about the neighborhoods this city, have than twice as much
sun as the wettest spots.

A few words, people trying to understand than weather but these change throughout the year, it’s
like trying to understand women’s behavior.