Expat Life: Wildfires and blackouts and droughts, oh my!

Edd:  I’ve been keeping up with the hurricane that hit Louisiana this week. In Cuenca we’re immune to those kinds of natural disasters, but there’s no doubt the weather around here has been very different this year.

Cynthia:  Last year as well. In Ecuador we have a rainy and dry season, but until recently we haven’t been able to tell much of a difference.

E:  In the past, no matter what the sky looked like when we left the house we always carried an umbrella, because you could count on at least a shower sometime during the day.

C:  Lately, the rains have been so light and infrequent that we never think about that any more. During July and August we experience our winter here, which traditionally has meant a lot of cool, cloudy weather. It has been wonderful to enjoy all these unexpected warm, sunny days, but since this country depends mainly on hydropower for electricity, the situation has become grim.

E:  Before we got some decent rain a few weeks back that replenished the reservoirs, daily blackouts lasting several hours were imposed. Fortunately, our building has a generator, so power outages for us only lasted about 10 seconds.

C:  When we were looking for a new home in Cuenca last year, it took us months to find this apartment. Because we had never experienced extended droughts over the 14 years we’ve lived here, we didn’t even think to ask if prospective buildings had generators. How fortunate this one does!

E:  Water rationing is now being talked about if conditions don’t improve soon. There is also a big cistern on our roof, so if that happens maybe we won’t have to totally do without.

C:  We were away traveling in 2022, but apparently the problem started then. That was a very dry year, and in 2023 we went 118 days without rain. So the water table and aquifers in the nearby Cajas mountains, which supply water to Cuenca, had already dropped and now have reached critical levels.

E:  And what often happens during periods of severe dryness? Fires. Around 2,500 acres of remote forestland burned before firefighters using helicopters got the blaze under control. We couldn’t smell the smoke, but the air quality was abysmal for days. You couldn’t even see the mountains surrounding the city.

C:  We should point out these problems aren’t confined to Ecuador. This past July was the driest on record for the whole continent of South America. A lot of the problem seems to be tied to El Niño, a complex weather pattern in the Pacific ocean involving the Humboldt current that is honestly above our pay grade.

E:  Well, all we can do is cross our fingers and hope the rainy season, which is supposed to start next month, brings mucha lluvia (Spanish for “much rain”). We took the photo above from our terrace so you could see those exposed rocks in the Tomebamba River that runs by our building. Sadly, they are usually submerged below rapidly flowing water that extends all the way to the riverbank.

C:  We’ve got a l-o-n-g way to go to get back to normal. Wish us luck! 🤞