Rain, Rain, Go away...

Not here in Texas. Here, we'd still be happy to have more rain. But in El Salvador, and throughout much of Central America, heavy rains right now are causing flooding and landslides all over. Of course, these bring with them an ever-increasing body count. Right now (well, as of yesterday), The Huffington Post indicates that the total number of Central American deaths is at 66, with 24 of these in El Salvador and another 28 in Guatemala. These two countries, with the bulk of the deaths, seem to bearing the brunt of the storms. Evacuations are in progress, and donations are needed for the many whose homes have been destroyed. Rubi over at Life in the Armpit points out a suggested organization for donations:
Voices on the Border

I remember the flooding and storms while in Guatemala, and I have many friends who have been affected by this over the years and who have had to rebuild from damages. My heart breaks for those who have lost part or all of their possessions and families. And I wonder, if it were me, would I pack it up and move back to the US? Would I be strong enough to re-build? Would I want to? Would I recover? I don't even want to consider the what-if-it-were-my-child question. Just one more thing to think about as we plan to head out: what's our back-up plan if disaster strikes?

To all in El Salvador and Guatemala now, prayers and wishes for health and safety for you and yours!

conversion!

I mentioned in my last post that I want to find a user-friendly weather map of El Salvador, so that I can ensure that I do not roast my retirement away at 100+ degrees in the shade. I'm not having a whole lot of luck with that, so I finally just opted for a check of what Lonely Planet has to say about the weather in ES. I'll note here that while I've used Lonely Planet guides pretty extensively in my travels, I find their guide to El Salvador to be far from comprehensive, and I'd love any suggestions for different travel books! Anyway, according to this not-the-best-lonely-plant-guide, weather in El Salvador is as follows:

coastal areas = 22-32 all year
central areas = 19-38
mountainous areas = 12-23

Using this handy-dandy temp converter I found, I am now able to adequately translate that:

coastal areas = 71-90 all year
central areas = 66-100
mountainous areas = 53-73

That's really not so bad! It looks like I have an option of always hot, but not unbearably so in the coastal areas, chilly at times, hot at others in the central areas, and chilly year-round in the mountainous areas. Those mountainous areas sound so great right now! Even after a not-too-terribly-hot day here, the thought of being in or around the 60's all year is quite enticing!

I'm pretty sure that P-daddy and I are not going to agree on which of these is the most attractive. But let's be honest, he's going to be so disgusted at my needing an online tool for temperature conversions that he may never even get to these last paragraphs!

Whether weather matters...

Here in Dallas, we are finally experiencing a welcome break from record-setting temps (40 consecutive days over 100 degrees!) with a welcome rain and a "break" with a high today expected to only be 99. All this hot hot weather got me to wondering:

What can we expect weather-wise in El Salvador?

My go-to site for weather here (Weather.com) tells me it's between 75 and 85 in San Salvador, between about 75 and 90 in San Miguel, and between 75 and 93 in la Union, but their travel maps don't even have El Salvador as an option. In searching for a more user-friendly weather guide to El Salvador, I came upon Weather Underground, which I immediately preferred, since it shows me the weather for 6 different parts of ES all at once. But what about the rest? Since weather will play into our decision as to where to eventually settle, this may be something I need to look into now! Anyone have suggestions for the best real-time weather conditions across the country?

Oh, and yeah, please note that my search is complicated by the Estado Unidense in me, who is really only familiar with temps in Fahrenheit. Perhaps what I need is an app for quick conversion...