Mérida, Yucatán — We have been waking up to temperatures in the teens (C) and 60s (F), waiting for highs around 30C/85F. And it’s been this way for more than a week in tropical Yucatán, where temperatures routinely top 38C/100F in the spring and summer.
Readers in the north may scoff, but for Yucatecans — and expats here long enough — this is a cold snap. Sweater weather, at best. Parka weather for some.
It’s also a health emergency for children and the elderly. Doctors recommend that families take special care for both groups.
School hours have been trimmed two hours, with physical exercise before the first session for a literal warmup.
Doctors have seen a 15 percent uptick in respiratory problems.
The flu outbreak in the U.S. and Canada threatens the population here, as well. Travel has brought new influenza strains south of the border, reports the Pelican Free Press, which covers the Puerto Aventuras English-speaking community on the Caribbean side of the Peninsula.
Dr. Carolina Guzman, the Puerto Aventuras “house-call doctor,” said she had been treating more than usual cases of the flu this year involving snowbirds and short-term visitors.
Weather outlook
For today, a high-pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico will favor cloudy skies and drizzle scattered across the northeast of the state, and drizzle in the south, according to the National Water Commission (Conagua). Highs will reach no more than 28C/84F. Temperatures tonight may drop as far as 11C/51F.
Northeast winds of 15-25 kph/9-12 mph, with gusts of up to 40 kph/20 mph, are expected on the coast.
Saturday’s skies should be clearer, but temperatures won’t change much.
This weekend, cloudy skies will prevail over the Yucatán Peninsula with scattered rains in the north and northeast of the state, with continued cool mornings and nights.
Sources: Sipse, Pelican Free Press
