Fire Nights

One of the biggest misconceptions I had about moving to Saudi Arabia was the weather. I assumed that because it was in a desert and obviously very hot, that it would be hot all the time. I resigned myself to a notion of Saudi weather that was a dry version of Florida weather. In response, I was mentally prepared for 10 months of unbearable, face melting heat, with two months of comfort to look forward to where it would only be hot. We were coming from Ecuador where it was consistently cool in the mountains, so we were expecting even further shock to our systems by moving to Saudi.

Our first few months proved that the face melting heat was a real thing. We only have a 100 step commute to work, but we would frequently arrive with a nice sweat sheen by the time we got to the refuge of air conditioning. Yet, once November hit, it was flat out delightful. The days hovered in the 75-80 range, the nights a cool 50-60. It even got cold for a few months. I had to break out a sweater at work on a few occasions.

In an effort to take advantage of the lovely temperature before it gets to face melting status again, we have outfitted our backyard area with a nice grill, a comfortable outdoor couch, and a fire pit. We have spent many a night in the back yard, with our sliding glass doors to our living room open and a movie projected on the wall. Outdoor movies, bonfires, and BBQs aren’t a bad way to take advantage of the weather in the few months that it is bearable.

I don’t anticipate we’ll have much longer to enjoy it, but in the meantime, Saudi has proven to be quite a pleasant surprise, and we’ve found that outdoor backyard comfort is a real thing that we can look forward to moving forward.