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drkeller1

Jul 7, 2007, 4:53 PM

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Winters in Zacatecas

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My husband and I are pondering spending several months in Zacatecas. Can anyone tell us what the winters are like? How cold does it get? We've spend the last 3 years on a sailboat in warm waters and warm winters and are wondering how cold the winters are in the central highlands.

jerezano

Jul 7, 2007, 8:29 PM

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Re: [loisanne] Winters in Zacatecas

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Hello,

December, January, and February are pretty darn cold. In fact during the summer after the rains start in July the evenings can even be sweater weather. Check the altitude for Zacatecas City and you will see why.

Unfortunately the weather data which are reported for Zacatecas City actually seem to be exactly the same for the Zacatecas Airport at Calera which is about 2000 lower in altitude. So, in no way will those official data be of much use to you.

I live in Jerez which is at about the same altitude as Calera and we have had hard freezes for the past four or five years in December and January. We have had snow only twice in recorded history, but we do have frequent granizos (hail and sleet storms).

I always recommend to my tourist friends who come to Zacatecas to bring a sweater even in summertime.

If either of you have pulmonary problems or perhaps heart problems, Zacatecas is not the city for you since the altitude--which is higher than Mexico City--but less than Real de Catorce can create real problems. Particularly since Zacatecas is built at the bottom of a canyon and up the slopes. Not a good city for bicycles or for walking.

Other than climate, Zacatecas is a fascinating City. Probably one of the most exciting in Mexico.

Adiós. jerezano.

(This post was edited by jerezano on Jul 7, 2007, 8:32 PM)

Papirex

Jul 7, 2007, 9:41 PM

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Re: [jerezano] Winters in Zacatecas

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Jerezano, I don’t have an answer to the original posters’ question, but your point about the location of the local online temperature reports is something that everyone should consider when looking at the weather reports for an area they have never visited before.

Asking what the climate is like in the Mexican highlands is like asking what is the weather like on the east coast, or the west coast of The US. It varies all over the place depending on where you are.

I have never seen frost in Cuernavaca, although it snows sometimes on the road to México City just a few miles from here

In Cuernavaca the online temperatures are taken at the local airport, which is about 20 or 25 miles south of town, and in a different climate zone. Those reports for Cuernavaca are always about 8 or 10 degrees F. Hotter than the actual temperatures in town in the daytime, and about 8 to 10 degrees F. colder than it is in town at night, summer or winter.

That works in our favor though I think. Not too many ex-patriates will chose to live in Cuernavaca based on the online weather reports if climate is their most important criteria when choosing where to live in México. They will probably follow the herd to someplace like the Lake Chapala area where they can enjoy a month of snotty weather every winter, and another month of snotty weather every summer and then tell the rest of us that they live in a place with a perfect climate. They are whistling in the dark. They wouldn’t know a perfect climate if it fell on them.

There are few English-speaking ex-pats here; there is no internecine fighting between ex-pat groups. That’s the way I like it. There is only one ex-pat group that I know of here, if there is more than one, they are keeping such a low profile that I have never heard of them. It is called The Newcomers Club. They boast a membership of 200 families. Considering that those families probably consist of mostly retirees and their spouses, that would not be many more than about 400 people, that’s not many in a city with a population of 400,000 people.

Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

raferguson

Jul 14, 2007, 9:14 PM

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Re: [loisanne] Winters in Zacatecas

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When we were in Zacatecas one January, the weather was not bad, a light coat was adequate.

However, we heard horror stories of a deep freeze that happened a few weeks before we arrived. It broke engine blocks on cars and killed about half of the cactus. The roads were skating rinks, pipes broke, etc. Not sure exactly how cold it got, however.

I don't think that one would choose Zacatecas for its climate. ;-)

Richard

http://www.fergusonsculpture.com