The people from Curitiba, Curitibanos, are like most people I have met in that they love to complain about the weather. They are fond of lamenting the fact that there can be 4 seasons in each day because you must have clothes to cater for each of the seasons. In the summer, half of the locals continually moan about the insufferable heat, and in the winter the other half just bang on about how cold they are.
The last couple of weeks have seen an upswing in these grumblings as the weather has changed from a pleasant Indian summer into a wet and cold autumn. Not that I am complaining, though.
The Goldilocks City
I have written before about how the bi-polar weather here in Curitiba can be a problem when you have small kids, and this is mainly because the infrastructure in homes means it is often colder indoors than it is outdoors.
However, as far as the actual weather is concerned, I have come to the conclusion that Curitiba is blessed with what must be close to being the best weather in the world.
You see, when it’s hot it is rarely too hot. I have lived in both Rio de Janeiro and Taipei and in both of those cities it can regularly hit 40, and then stay there for months. In Curitiba if it gets to 35 it is unusual. As well as needing less air conditioning, this has the advantage of keeping dengue away (for now).
And when it is cold, it is rarely too cold. It can get down to zero for a few days, but never the -20 with snow from November to Easter that I experienced when I lived in Poland for a year. The advantage of this is that you can wear something other than shorts every day of the week.
And ok, it can be grey and overcast a lot. But not like London. I spent one winter in London when I didn’t see the sun for about 4 months. This was because I went to work on the underground in the morning and when I came home it was already dark. On the weekends it was either wet, cloudy or I was in bed recovering from a particularly hard night.
When it is cloudy in London, it can be cloudy for months on end. When it is hot in Rio, or freezing in Poland, it will be like that for a long time. In Curitiba, in the midst of a freezing and wet winter, we can have the odd beautiful, warm day. And when it’s been over 30 for a couple of weeks there is a good chance that the next few days will be wet and only in the 20’s.
We don’t get hurricanes or twisters. We don’t have earthquakes or volcanoes. We live far enough away from the sea, and high enough up the mountains to not be worried about Tsunamis or the rising seas due to global warming.
We get the odd storm which can result in some floods and sometimes a landslide, but nothing like other parts of Brazil. The storms we get are proper storms with rain lashing down, bolts of lightning and claps of thunder. Powerful, invigorating and amazing.
And so Curitiba is the Goldilocks city because it is never too hot and never too cold. In fact, it is usually just about right.
Images
Goldilocks by Vlolscraper CC BY-NC 2.0
Old, modern and organic in Curitiba by Radamés Manasso CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The Head of the Heard 