After some delightful winter weather, it’s become rather cold here in the Algarve of late. Nobody in the UK ever seems to believe me when I say that, but this week it’s been sufficiently chilly in some parts of Portugal for the government to issue amber weather alerts.

Now I’m sure people outside the country think it’s amusing and perhaps daft that temperatures dropping below 10 degrees Celsius is considered cause for an “alert,” but from Lisbon downwards, this is not a country particularly well prepared for cold.

For a start, people don’t generally have central heating. In the main, properties here are designed to keep the fierce summer heat at bay, and not to keep in warmth in winter. We have air-conditioning units that are capable of pushing out hot air as well as cold, but they heat one room at a time and do nothing for cold tiled floors and chilly hallways. In addition, living in a permanently air-conditioned atmosphere isn’t particularly pleasant or healthy.

So, we have spent the past week missing a few things from back in the UK – namely radiators, toasty country pubs and carpets. While the few tourists in our local town stubbornly remain pointed at the sun in their shorts and flip-flops, us workers have to watch enviously from indoors in our hoodies and woolly socks.

The same local newspapers reporting about the cold weather alerts are also informing us of the potential for a severe drought in Portugal this summer.

One of the first times my wife and I visited Portugal on holiday, the country was experiencing a drought and water was turned off regularly during the afternoon. Before we moved here, we were told this might be a regular occurrence. Then the winter of 2009 brought more rain than any since the 1800s and filled the reservoirs to such an extent that until now we have experienced no such outages.

However, this winter it has hardly rained at all. We experienced a brief rainstorm last week, and it was such a novelty that we stood outside under a canopy with the family to watch. Since then – nothing.

It’s all rather contradictory. The sun is still strong enough to burn, yet it’s cold enough for fleeces and hot water bottles. When it does rain, it rains very hard, yet overall it is dry enough to bring on a drought. Unsettling though it is, it is good that I have these factors to fuel my overpowering British need to talk about the weather!

Next week, we head off to England for a week of work, where it looks like we may even see some snow. However, I know that I’ll be able to step indoors into a centrally heated environment. I’m looking forward to that. I’m looking forward to going from Portugal to England, in winter, to feel warm. Who’d have known?

Ben