Now, there we find an interesting linguistic fact. In Spanish you can have both an ola de calor and an ola de frío. In English you can have the first of these, a heat wave, but you never hear anyone talk about a cold wave. Cold fronts can move across the country in one direction and another. We also have cold snaps on occasion, suggesting a very sudden onset of cold. When it comes to waves, however, we only like them to be hot.
Whatever name you like to give it, Galicia is in a state of yellow alert for cold weather. Indeed most of Spain, apart from the deep south has been under some kind of alerta because of snow. And, just like in the UK thousands of children have had their schools closed because of it, flights have been diverted from La Coruña’s Alvedro airport because of ice on the runway and there has been traffic chaos all over the place.
Yesterday morning Santiago de Compostela and Lugo were colapsados (brought to a standstill) by the snowfalls and more particularly by the icy streets. (As usual in such case
s there is never enough salt!!!) Lugo is more used to winter hazards but everyone was surprised to have snow in the centre of Santiago de Compostela itself. It did give rise to some interesting photos though.
Newspapers report that this is the worst winter in Galicia since 1984. Here in Vigo, however, apart from the early morning frost, we seem to have escaped the worst of it. Blue sky and sunshine still is the order of the day. The people walking their dogs in the park near us were wearing light jackets or just jerseys in some cases. The dogs were often more wrapped up than their owners. Old gentlemen sat on the benches reading their papers in the sunshine and old ladies were happily chatting.
As I walked back from the supermarket, though, I did go past some people working out how to put chains on the wheels if their car. Either they were heading to somewhere like Lugo or there is something going on with Vigo’s weather that I’ve not heard about yet.
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