Medellin Is About To Get Real HOT Soon (it’s already started)

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Menagin is about to get real hot and in some ways it's already started. If you watching this and you've been in Menagin recently in the last 2 or 3 weeks, you will know that it has been uncharacteristically hot for May.

[00:00:12]Normally May is kind of a wet month before the dry season starts in the summer, but we've hardly had any rainfall the last 2 or 3 weeks. And I think earlier this month in May, a record temperature of around 32 or maybe even 33° was recorded in the valley of Abora. And from doing a little bit of research, this is partly down to the El Nino weather pattern. Now, as you guys know, I'm not a weather expert. I'm not a meteorologist or anything like that.

[00:00:35]So, I'm not completely versed on this topic. But seeing as you guys interested in Colombia managing content, I thought I'd give this one a go. So, basically, El Nino comes around every few years, and you get strong ones, not so strong ones, and it's basically a weather pattern related to warm water in the Pacific Ocean near the equator, which affects Colombia because Colombia is near the equator. and all those countries around Latin America can be affected by the El Nino weather pattern.

[00:00:59]And yeah, you can really feel it.

[00:01:00]Honestly, the weather's pretty predictable here in the morning. It's a little bit cloudy kind of late morning, early afternoon, you get a little bit of sun and it's nice and warm. Then kind of by mid to late afternoon, it cools off.

[00:01:10]The clouds roll in. It starts raining, which kind of cools the temperature down a little bit. It it kind of goes like that. But these last two or 3 weeks, as you guys can see now, it's kind of been just nonstop sun like this all day long.

[00:01:22]There's like no let up whatsoever. And most of the buildings in Menagin don't have air conditioning. So I probably like everyone else have been struggling.

[00:01:29]When I speak to my portterero, he's struggling as well. My neighbors all feel really tired in the afternoon. And so yeah, it looks like we may have a kind of super El Nino weather pattern coming in, although that's not confirmed yet. And when this happens, Colombia normally gets less rainfall, a lot more sunshine, no kind of break in the day from rain, that kind of thing. And it's a big problem because not only does Colombia rely a lot on rainfall for its electricity production with hydroelect electric that kind of thing it's also a big food producer as well. So big El Nino event where there is reduced rainfall soaring temperatures actually could push up energy prices in Menagin as well with kind of reducing crop yields and everything. So it could be inflationary as well which would just probably get blamed on foreigners anyway knowing what the situation is like here.

[00:02:13]But anyway, so there have been three kind of super El Nino events in the last few years. One in the 80s, 1982, the other one in 1997, and most recently around 10 years ago in 2015. These were classified as super El Nino effects. And some reports say that this kind of weather could last until 2027, which is 2 years, which is crazy. Obviously, it's not going to be wallto-wall sunshine the whole time, but it is slightly concerning, and you can definitely feel it when you're here in Menagin and obviously in other parts of Colombia as well. Now typically the most affected regions are on the Caribbean coast. So think Baronija, Kartahena, Santa Marta, those kind of places. Bogatar as well because it has such a big population and is highly dependent on reservoir levels.

[00:02:51]And so during an El Nino event where there's reduced rainfall, Bogota really struggles. I think Menagin and in Antioch is kind of a little bit mid like it doesn't get affected too much, but it's also not super safe. But the coffee region, Cali, places like this, they are more kind of protected potentially from an El Nino weather effect from what I understand and from what I've read. So we have the El Nino event going on. And the second one is the topography of Menagin. That valley effect traps heat in. It doesn't really let the heat escape. So when you do have a weather event like this coupled with urbanization, reduced green spaces in menagin for buildings, more roads, more tarmac, that kind of thing, it just kind of makes the problem worse. Whereas in the countryside where there's more room for the heat to escape, there's not as much kind of urbanization, etc. I guess you don't feel the effects as much. And you can definitely feel it here at nighttime these last few weeks that the heat kind of doesn't really escape.

[00:03:39]Normally with that rainfall, it kind of cools the air down. I guess the heat can kind of escape a little bit more. But when it doesn't rain and it's just wall to wall sunshine, and the valley gets 10 hours of solid sun all throughout the day. The temperature at night time is just like exactly the same during the day. Well, not exactly the same, but like only a few degrees different. So, I've been sleeping in my apartment with all the windows open to get ventilation in. And yeah, cuz I don't have air conditioning. As I said, most of the apartments and houses in Menagin do not have air conditioning because they simply didn't need it. If you speak to someone who's been living in Menagin for a while, maybe someone who's older, an abolito, something like this, or maybe you're watching this and your parents lived in Menagin, maybe in the early 2000s, ' 80s, '90s, that kind of thing.

[00:04:16]You never needed AC. I think the temperatures have risen in the last few years because of urbanization, because of increased pollution, more cars, that kind of thing. I've also done videos about this if you want to check those out. Yeah. And this potential super El Nino weather event could make that even worse. And you know what's crazy is you still see locals walking around with trousers on, jeans on, long sleeve shirts on, that kind of thing, even when it's like 32° in the middle of the day.

[00:04:40]So pisers living in Menagin will still not change their wardrobe or wear shorts or t-shirts or anything even when the weather's crazy. Obviously, I know that's a generalization and lots of locals do wear shorts and t-shirts, but I still see loads of people wearing their trousers, wearing jackets, all the rest of it. And honestly, I just could not do that. I would roast alive in these temperatures if I was wearing jeans or a long sleeve t-shirt or even a jumper. I saw someone the other day wearing a leather jacket. Could you imagine wearing a leather jacket in this kind of weather in an El Nino weather event when it hasn't rained in 2 weeks and the sun feels like it's just going to burn your skin? Or is that just me being a pale gringo? I'm not sure. Like for example, right now it is almost 4:00. I've just come into the sun out from the shade and it feels like if I spend too much time in the sun, I'm just going to burn to death even though I have factor 50 plus on. And so the sun is just hot. And it did actually rain last night. First time I think in two weeks or maybe just over two weeks that it had rained and you could instantly feel the drop in temperature. But yeah, up until last night, it hadn't rained for a couple of weeks. And it's really unusual. I've been here for almost a year and that hasn't happened yet. So yeah, El Nino apparently happens once every kind of 7 to 10 years. So it almost due an El Nino weather event here in Colombia causes drought, problems with electricity production, crops, that kind of thing. But interestingly, the opposite weather pattern of El Nino is leninia, which is like a wet season, intense rain, thunderstorms, etc., which in Colombia causes flooding, landslides, just like whichever you get, El Nino or Leninia is bad news basically. But you know what? These things have happened in the past and I'm sure the country will survive. Menim will be okay. Colombians are resourceful and so they'll find a way to kind of get over it. But it's just interesting these different weather patterns that you get here and how it affects daily life. It is interesting.

[00:06:19]One of the plus sides is that the weather's almost a little bit more predictable now because you just know it's not going to rain. So, normally around this time it would start raining.

[00:06:27]You kind of have to be a bit careful about your afternoon plans. Like I've talked about on this channel before. The traffic gets even worse during a thunderstorm when it's raining a lot.

[00:06:34]But you can be pretty confident right now that it's not going to rain in the afternoon and evening. So, you can just go ahead and go to a mir, do some outdoor activities, spend time outside, and you don't really need to bring your umbrella with you, for example, because you just know it's not going to rain.

[00:06:48]Whereas before like last month for example when it rained every single day in the afternoon you have to be super careful. So there are plus sides and downsides but this weather definitely does not feel kind of normal city of eternal spring weather. It feels more like the uh city of eternal sun to be honest rather than spring because like if this is spring weather then what's summer weather? Like if 32° is spring then summer's like what like 45° which is like absolutely insane. So yeah, if you are in Menagin, then you are already prepared for this weather, but just brace yourself in for potentially, you know, a few months, maybe even a year of hot weather all the time. And if you do plan on visiting Menagin soon, like my friends in Bogota who are visiting next month, I have told them to prepare themselves for hot weather with lots of sun cream. They don't need to bring an umbrella. They don't need to bring their leather jackets from Bogota because they're just not going to need them because Menagin is going to stay hot for a while, I think, from my own research.

[00:07:38]So anyway guys, I hope you enjoyed the video and speak