It’s been a while since we talked about Cyprus—it’s all been about books lately. Since the warm summer is coming to an end, let me tell you about winter in Cyprus.
Many people who don’t live in warm countries often think that it’s always warm here, though not necessarily hot. In part, they’re right: for instance, today is November 6th, and during the day, the temperature outside is +29°C (84°F), while at night, it drops to +16°C (61°F). That’s pretty decent August weather for places like Minsk.
Moreover, even in the winter months, the weather is much warmer than what residents of Minsk, Moscow, or Saint Petersburg are used to. Based on my observations, the average daytime temperature during winter months is between 13-20°C (55-68°F), while at night, it’s around 5-7°C (41-45°F). Sometimes it drops to 0°C (32°F) or even below, but this is quite rare.
Advantages of such a climate:
- No need to switch between summer and winter tires! It’s really convenient. Sure, the tires wear out faster, but that’s something you can live with.
- Less variety in clothing. My winter wardrobe consists of jeans, a T-shirt or a shirt, and maybe a light sweater, which sometimes just stays in the car. As for shoes, I basically wear the same pair year-round — comfortable, breathable sneakers.
- The sun! Or rather: THE SUN!!! Statistically, Cyprus enjoys 330 sunny days a year. And it’s only by living here that you start to understand how important it is for your body just to see the sun. Now, when I visit Minsk, I sometimes ask myself how I managed to live without the sun for months and not go crazy.
“Well, you’re lucky!” my friends from Belarus might exclaim. I won’t deny it—the pros are great. But it’s also important to understand the specifics of winter life on the island, something that those who don’t live here often don’t know or think about.
The fact is, the abundance of heat and sunshine has greatly influenced the lifestyle and domestic habits of Cypriots. In the summer months, the temperature in Nicosia, which is located in the center of the island, can easily reach +45°C (113°F) during the day. It sounds a bit intimidating, but keep in mind that humidity is much lower in the center of the island. Because of this, +45°C here feels much more bearable than +30°C (86°F) in Minsk, where the humidity is higher. I can easily walk around the city in such temperatures without breaking a sweat. Yes, you feel the heat, but it’s like being in a good Finnish sauna—just warmth. On the coast, the humidity is higher, and the temperature is usually 3-5 degrees lower. During the summer months, I don’t feel as comfortable there.
After a few years, you get used to the high temperatures, and there’s hardly any discomfort. Sure, you can’t walk around in the sun much during the day, and cars heat up like ovens—after ten minutes without air conditioning, it’s impossible to touch the steering wheel. But overall, it’s quite manageable.
That’s probably why many Cypriots switch to “winter” clothes rather early. You remember, right? In November, it’s still +29°C during the day, while in the morning, it’s +15°C. By the second half of October, it’s already common to see locals walking around in warm jackets, or even boots. In the winter months, out come fur coats and warm hats. I still find it strange, dressing as if it’s just a cool summer day in Minsk. But I understand that the locals’ bodies simply aren’t accustomed to these temperatures—they’re clearly cold. Perhaps in a few more years, I’ll become like them. After all, some of my colleagues have already fully embraced Cypriot ways.
But the real challenge is dealing with household life in winter. When there are only a few truly cold days, people tend to think they can be “ignored.” For example, the approach to construction here clearly follows the principle of “how much winter do we really have?” For starters, there’s no central hot water supply in homes. All houses have tanks on their roofs, which heat up in the summer sun. This isn’t always due to solar panels generating electricity; sometimes it’s just pipes circulating water that gets heated. In the summer, that’s enough to provide hot water even in the early morning (since at night, with +30°C, it doesn’t have time to cool down). But during the winter, the sun’s rays aren’t strong enough to heat the water. So you either spend money on electricity (which is quite expensive on the island), or you get used to doing certain tasks with cold water. I’ve gotten used to brushing my teeth and shaving with this refreshing method. And if you want a proper shower, you heat up the water in advance—or take one in the evening on a sunny day.
The houses themselves are also not built with cold weather in mind. Most homes in Cyprus don’t have proper ventilation systems. Instead, they rely on windows with gaps, through which the air ventilates the room. Or you simply keep the windows open. Moreover, don’t even think about sealing the windows Soviet-style. Without ventilation, you’re in trouble. One colleague did that in his first year, then went away for the winter holidays. Believe me, I had never seen clothes in a closet mold like that before.
Cypriots also don’t seem to know how (or don’t see the need) to build walls properly. It feels like they’ve never heard of construction methods that keep a house warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
There’s also no central heating in the way we understand it. In some apartment buildings, there’s something similar—a boiler system for that specific building. But it often works on a schedule. In other houses (and nearly all private homes), heating is the tenant’s responsibility and expense. Most houses are heated with diesel boilers. If the system is set up well, maintaining a comfortable temperature in the house will cost around €500-800 for the winter season. But that’s a very rough estimate. It depends on the house and where the radiators are located. In the worst case, there may be no radiators at all, or they may be electric. And as we know, electricity on the island is expensive.
Now let’s recall the “ventilation” through the windows. That means even if you heat your apartment well and then turn off the heater, within about 30 minutes, the temperature will return to “normal.” Over time, you simply get used to living in cooler temperatures. In Cyprus, they even joke that people go outside in the winter to warm up because it’s often warmer outside during the day than it is inside the house or apartment.
What does that mean? Let me give you an example. In my bedroom during the winter, the average temperature is +17°C (63°F). In my daughter’s room, which is at the corner of the house, it sometimes drops to +14°C (57°F).
How do you live with that? There are various ways. First, the body gradually adjusts, and you start to perceive the temperature differently. Sleeping in +17°C is much more comfortable than in the overheated apartments of Minsk (in my Minsk apartment, the central heating was so hot it would reach +27°C, and I had to turn off some of the radiators). Once you get used to sleeping in cooler temperatures, it’s hard to sleep in places with central heating—when I visited home for New Year’s, I almost suffocated in my own bedroom.
Next, there are plenty of ways to stay warm without radiators. The simplest is air conditioners with heating. They don’t really heat the room as much as circulate warm air. Once you turn them off, the warmth disappears, unlike with radiators, where the heated surface keeps releasing heat for a while. But if you need to quickly warm up a room before getting into bed, it’s a good option.
At night, blankets help. You can have one warm blanket or several. My younger kids even slept in warm sleeping bags, which they couldn’t get out of on their own, even when turning in their sleep. If you want more warmth, welcome to the world of fleece pajamas. And I’m only half-joking. While maybe not fleece, thick, warm pajamas are in high demand during winter. We laughed the first year when we saw them on sale, but come winter, we appreciated the “joke.” Now, all the kids sleep in such pajamas and socks.
Finally, only in this country did I discover heated sheets. We don’t use them much, but our eldest daughter, whose room sometimes drops to +14°C, warms her bed with one before going to sleep.
All in all, you dress warmly and learn to live in cooler temperatures.
But on the plus side, in winter, Cyprus blooms and turns green. While in the summer the island looks like a dusty, yellow, scorched steppe, in winter, it delights with green grass and colors that are more familiar to us from summer.
In truth, while these conditions are unusual and may seem uncomfortable for people from colder countries, you get used to living with them. Besides, “how long does winter really last anyway?”
