The following article about the seasons in Loja is written from the perspective of a North American who is accustomed to thinking in terms of seasons -- winter, spring, summer, fall... My Ecuadorian friends and co-workers have no such frame of reference and thus don't refer to the seasonal cycles this way. They tell me that in the past Loja had a wet season and a dry season, had a milder climate overall and was more predictable. Given the trend over the last twenty years or so, many refer to July-August as "summer" where "summer" means the coldest time of the year. (I have found this in other parts of Ecuador as well.) Perhaps even more commonly here in Loja, whenever it is warm and sunny, the locals call it "summer" and likewise when it's cold and rainy, they call it "winter". So any given year can have dozens of "summers" and dozens of "winters" and it can be "summer" for 5 days straight followed by a week of "winter", etc.
So, on that note, the following should make a lot of sense to those who are used to the 4-seasons-a-year paradigm and maybe not so much sense to those who are not... Enjoy!
I lived in Quito for two years, 2016-2018. I find it hard to believe that the northern Sierra is sunnier. Perhaps you had lucky weather on your visits. However, your description of weather cycles in Loja is quite similar to those in Quito. Loja, however, should be warmer than Quito due to its lower elevation.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting point is that there are micro-climates throughout Ecuador. In fact, Quito straddles different climates. The south of Quito is quite wet, while the northern suburbs are much drier. If you've been to the Mitad del Mundo park you may have noticed a lack of trees and a lot of cacti and succulents. You can eve spot these anomalies from Google Earth views.
Thanks for your comment. I have to tell you though, I started living in Quito more than 2 years ago for work opportunities after 5 years in Loja (and Cuenca before that) and it is SO much warmer here in the north. I still have family (including my Ecuadorian grandchild) and many friends in Loja and it happens a LOT they they tell me how cold they are in Loja while we are having Florida weather in Quito. My daughter-in-law is from Loja and she likes the cold weather there. She tells me she could never live in Quito because it is too hot. Ecuadorians understand this difference. When I tell them I lived in Loja for years, they all say some version of "Oh wow! It's sooo beautiful there! ... But COLD!!!" Why is it so much much warmer here in the northern mountains? I do think it's because we get so much sun here. AND the air is pretty dry whereas in Loja humidity often runs over 70% so you really feel the cold (and the heat, on those few days when the temps climb into the beach weather margins). In Loja, my car did not have heat and that was a problem because my hands got too numb to hold the steering wheel. In Quito, the issue is not having air conditioning. Now it's true that Quito is a long North-South city with huge variations in altitude and I have no doubt that the folks living at the higher altitudes get cold sometimes (some folks live above 10,000 feet!!) but it isn't the biting humid cold we get in Loja. It's a dry cold which is a very different thing. But it's okay to keep this a secret. Gringos are convinced that Quito is cold and Loja is warm. Ecuadorians know differently. And everybody seems happy this way.
Delete