Have you every heard of the concept “cabañuelas” (also cavanuelas or cabanuelas)? We had not. Yesterday our Mayan friend was telling us that the weather we were are having that day, the second of January, would predict the weather for the month of February. I mentioned this to another friend last night, as she was complaining about the cold (it was 22C/ 72F at 9:00PM, a real local). She said it is called “cabañuelas”.
The concept dates back as far as the Egyptians and was thought to have been brought to Mexico by the Spaniards. The idea is that if you carefully observe the weather for the first twelve days of January, you can predict the weather for the rest of the year. The first twelve days correspond to each of the twelve months of the year. As it stands right now we had a beautiful day on January 1st reaching a high of 29C/84F. The next day was a bit more coolish (highs around 26C/79F) with a cooler than usual evening on January 2nd, with overcast skies, but no rain. January 3rd so far has brought a very chilly (for us) morning (16C/61F) at sunrise, but beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the late 20s. If cabañuelas holds true, January (after the first twelve days I guess) will be lovely. February will be cool night and mid 20s during the day with some clouds. While March will be a beautiful month with good sleeping weather at night. Tomorrow we will see what April holds.
That is the theory that the locals use, but if you look deeper into cabañuelas, there is more to it than that. If we have piqued your interest you can read more about it here or here and try to predict the weather in Puerto Morelos for yourself. As for the USA and Canada…. let’s hope this theory doesn’t hold true for them. With their recent cold snap, they could be looking at a very icy July if cabañuelas applied there.
Looking for a get away from the cold? We have a rare opening in apartment #3 for January 23 to the morning of the 31st. Hope to see you soon!