weather in Durango, Mexico

Weather

Ask people what are their priorities when choosing a retirement location, and I imagine weather to be in the top three or four of that list.  I know for me it plays an important role.  I have lucked out in finding Durango.

As I have said elsewhere, I decided to buy into this Buddhist community about six years ago sight unseen, while I was living in China.  I know I do well in community, and this one offered still unknown participants who would be sharing a similar philosophy and lifestyle.  So many years later, and the community has not yet flourished.  There are still no permanent residents.  Only one house is livable, and that Canadian gentleman spends two weeks twice a year here on his vacation.  When he does retire he plans to spend only six months here in order to preserve his Canadian retirement benefits. Now that I live in this location, it feels like for a whole lot of other reasons it is never going to take seed.  I arrived a year ago already vested, and so I stick around to see what I can make of my investment.

I have not yet lived here the full year around.  I have come in winter, summer, and late fall.  Now I am experiencing the full winter season, and spring is just around the corner. 

One thing I have said often is that I love the blue skies.  At 6,000 feet altitude the sky is a dark shade of blue.  It is not the washed out blue that I usually saw in Jiangsu, China.  For a while, I swore there were never any clouds.  I have learned better now, but I am no less enthralled.

Six years ago when I first heard about this place I did look up information about the weather.  It seemed that the daytime temperature ranged between 70 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit all year round.   I had been advised that in winter strong winds blow.  I have not found this true, except for March.  In this month a brief gust can rock you.  In the afternoon the wind picks up, pressing city dust into crevices around the doors and windows.

The winter nights could be cold, dipping down to freezing.  I thought I had better equip my proposed house with a wood burning stove.

Now that I have slept through many a winter night, with passive solar water heater on the roof, I realize that the cold is fleeting, it leaves as soon as the sun rises above the mountain tops.  The nights are very long.  It is dark by 7:30 p.m., and the starry skies remain visible for twelve hours more.  Although it can get cold at night, I do not see the earth freezing.  A frosty night can bite the leaves and red flowers off a healthy Poinsettia bush, but the roots remain unscathed.

A southerly facing bedroom window will allow the room to get cozy warm before bedtime.  If I turn on a heater, it is only to pamper myself.  Once inside the blankets I sleep warmly all night. A bathrobe is enough for the nightly bathroom run. 

This is a far cry from winters I have spent in East Tibet at 12,000 feet.

So, is it true that there are never any clouds in the sky?  This year around September the rainy season began.  The days were partly cloudy, but the rains usually held off until nightfall.  The high plateau land here is similar to dessert in that the rainy season results in flash floods. 

In the tiny village of El Pozole where my house is, I was pretty much housebound for a month.  The dirt roads out here in the countryside tend to get muddy.  Ruts can be filled with a foot of water, over a slippery muddy base. A creek passes across the road, and for most of the year can be forded by car or by stepping stones.  But in rainy season it overflows its banks to become deep and 30 feet wide with swift current.  The one flat bridge into town was inundated this year, by about one foot of swift-running water that lasted most of the month.  That pretty much shuts down transportation for all but tall 4x4 pickup trucks. 

The heavy equipment still moves, the bulldozers and backhoes, which gouge deep ruts into the soft roads.  The locals take it in stride, being prepared with good vehicles and Wellingtons.  I was stuck, with a low-carriage ‘city’ car.

I was surprised by a day or two of rain in January, and again in February.  The locals murmured that the weather is changing.  There are the occasional clouds even when the rain does not fall, but it is a rare day when the sun does not burn down.  This afternoon I took a walk in the countryside, and when I got home to shower discovered a line of tan on my legs above my socks.  Yet as the sun goes down and night approaches, the sky is gray with big patches of clouds.

By March the nippy nights are long gone (unless you are riding on a motorbike at dawn, when you still feel the cold with three layers on, wishing for gloves), the day time temperatures rise to between 75 and 80 degrees.  Farmers are gardeners have already planted seeds, and the fields are green with beans or wheat. 

In summer, as I have written elsewhere, a house needs to be properly constructed to accommodate the weather.  I stayed in a home that had inadequate insulation and ventilation, and suffered some very hot nights.  Yet I would sit in the yard at dusk and feel the cool breeze blowing, and the mosquitoes biting.  Not many, but it only takes two to drive you mad.  Out with the Off!  A house designed with adequate ventilation would admit the evening breeze and dispel the heat.

As I continue to construct my house, I am making sure there are layers of concrete inside the brick structure to serve as insulation.  The large picture window in the master bedroom is south facing, and screened windows face the east and west to accommodate the evening summer breezes.  This is how I designed the house six years ago. 

The summer sun can be hot.  It is wise to walk with a wide-brimmed hat and or an umbrella.  But the heat is a dry heat and the breezes still flow across the plateau.  It is not a heat the presses you down to the earth and makes you melt.

I find this one fact about Mexico to be a bit odd.  From what I understand, the little city of Canatlan is not unusual in not having storm drains.  The large city of Durango does also not have storm drains.  When it rains the streets flood.  This explains the very high sidewalks in Canatlan.  In the newer developments in Durango I also noticed that the houses were built at a slight elevation, with down-sloping paved yards.

If freezing cold winters and muggy summers are not your cup of tea, you may well find the weather in Durango on the asset column as you evaluate your potential retirement location.