How is the summer in the Azores? That is a question we get from friends and family, in internet forums travellers put up the question what kind of clothes they should bring. The standard answer is, we have four seasons a day, so be ready for everything, sun, wind, rain, fog, sun… That does not sound too appealing for people who associate summer with sun and beaches. Further if you are looking at the weather applications on the internet, you will hardly see a day when temperatures rise above 25 degrees – ok, that is measured in the shadow, but nevertheless not very appealing for a summer holiday. Looking at the globe though, we are as south as Sicily, a place pretty much heated up by the sun in the summer. Reading meteorological articles about the Azores, it says that we are having something in between Mediterranean and Subtropical climate, how does that feel in reality?First and foremost, forget what the thermometer shows, the needle will be somewhere in between 21 and 25 degrees, no matter what time of the day. More important is looking at the hygrometer, it never shows any value below 80%, humidity rules. No matter how the sky is, if you do any physical activity, you will be soaked in sweat within five minutes. If the sun is out, as it was over the last couple of weeks when we had great weather, hardly any rain and mostly clear skies, it burns.
Yesterday we planned to go for a swim to Praia do Almoxarife, one of the nicest sandy beaches of Faial, unfortunately there where pretty big waves, clouds and a yellow weather alert out due to expected heavy rains later in the evening. Honestly, we were not too sad about that, finally we hoped for some cooling down, but as it often happens, the prediction was not that accurate. There was some rain in the morning, meanwhile the sun is burning again and it is hot and humid.So, are the Azores a hidden beach holiday place? Luckily not really, otherwise we would be overrun by hordes of partying holiday makers. Like so many other things, the Azores are particular, we do have beaches, some of them even sandy, but more exciting there are many so called natural sea pools. Ancient lava streams which formed small ponds when hitting the sea and which nowadays are used as swimming pools. They are perfect to enjoy our climate, whilst sunbathing you can feel the sun burning your back, jumping into one of the pools let’s you cool down. That is our summer, hot, humid, sunny and sometimes rainy, really enjoyable.
