Alfaix is a small village in Costa Almeria, Spain. Alfaix is just a short drive from the Mediterranean beaches of southeastern Spain. Apart from the holiday rental homes in the village, Alfaix is quite small, rural, and pastoral, with many villagers still raising chickens and donkeys as they have for centuries. While the town itself may have a charming rustic quality you might find described in an Ernest Hemmingway novel, the beaches nearby offer picturesque views of the ocean, beautiful weather, and attractions for everybody from young singles to families.
Apart from the various annual fiestas, Alfaix and the surround area has much to offer in terms of recreation, with swimming and golfing being two of the most popular activities in the area, along with sampling the local cuisine and a modest number of nightlife attractions. The historic city of Granada, with its famed Moorish architecture, is about a two hour drive from Alfaix, and the nearest airport is Almeria Airport, nine kilometres east of the city centre of Almeria, the capital of the Province of Almeria.
Climate
Andalusia, the autonomous community in which Alfaix is situated, boasts some of the highest temperatures and driest conditions in all of Europe. The dry summers regularly hit 30C, while the winters are a bit cooler, hovering around 20C. The winter also sees more precipitation. Spring and autumn are probably the ideal seasons for visitors who prefer warm weather to hot.
SringApril is the first month of the year in Alfaix in which temperatures routinely surpass 20C. The average temperature is 16.4C, with highs of 21C and lows of 12C. April generally only sees three to five rainy days all month, which actually makes it one of the rainiest months in Alfaix. Daily, the amount of sunlight in April goes from 13 to 14 hours by monthâs end. The average wind speed throughout April is just less than 20 kilometres per hour.
May is similar to April, just incrementally warmer and drier. The average temperature is 19C, with highs of 23.6C, and lows of 14.6C. Rain normally occurs on three to four days over the course of May. Daylight hours range from 14 to 15 as the month goes on.
As spring turns to summer by the end of June, things begin to become very dry and hot. In addition to having the most sunlight â"nearly 16 hoursâ" precipitation is a rare event, occurring only on one or two days all month. The mean temperature is 23C, the usual highs and lows are 27C and 18C, respectively.
Summer
The annual summer drought begins in July, with the whole month often passing without a rainy day. The mean temperature is 26C, while the regular low is 21C, and the high is 30.3C. The number of daylight hours decreases back down to 14 as July progresses. July is also the clearest month, with very little relief being provided from the sunâs heat in terms of cloud cover and fog.
August is the hottest month most years in Alfaix and the surrounding area. The mean temperature is 26.4C, with the mercury regularly hitting 31C, only dropping down to 22C overnight. August often passes without a rainy day as well, with an average of only 4 mm of precipitation. Tourists and villagers weary from the heat get one more hour without sun each day as the number of daylight hours decreases to 13.
As the autumnal equinox hits, Alfaix spends half of each day in sunlight and half in moonlight. The rain usually makes its return in September, falling on to the parched ground for one or two days. The mean temperature is 24C, with a low of 19.5C, and a high of 28.3C. September is regularly the least windy month, with a generally still air with wind speeds of about 16 kilometres per hour.
Autumn
October has a mean temperature of 20C, with average lows and highs of 15.7C and 24.3C, respectively. The rain picks up a little bit, with an average of 33 mm of precipitation falling over the course of three rainy days. The amount of sunlight each day decreases from nearly 12 hours at the beginning of October to about 11 by the end. Daylight savings time ends late in the month.
The average number of rainy days in November is the same as October, three. The temperature drops a modest amount in November, with an average of 16.2C, the low is 12C, and the high is 20.4C. The number of daylight hours drops from about 11 at the start of November to 10 by monthâs end.
December is one of the rainiest months in Alfaix, with three to five rainy days dropping about 38-40 mm of precipitation. On the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year in terms of sunlight) the number of daylight experienced is just under 10 hours. The mean temperature is 13.7C, with lows and highs of 9.4C and 18C, respectively. December is usually the month with the least clear skies, with a combination of cloud cover and fog obscuring the sun more than any other month, but still possessing a majority of sunny days.
Winter
January is the coolest month in this region of Spain, but it never really gets cold, with a mean temperature of 12.5C, a high of 17C, and a low of 8C. January, along with December, is the rainiest month, with another 38-40 mm of precipitation over three to five days. The amount of daily sunlight is about 10.5 hours by the end of the month.
February possesses the highest average wind speeds of any month in the region surrounding Alfaix, with the wind clocking in at just less than 20 kilometres an hour; which is still not particularly windy. The mean temperature is 13.2C, with a high of 17.7C, and a low of 8.8C. February generally experiences three to four rainy days. The amount of daily sunlight increases from about 10.5 hours to more than 11 hours by the monthâs end.
The average temperature for March is 14.7C, with highs and lows of 19.2C and 10C, respectively. There are about three rainy days in March and around 13 hours of daylight by the time of the vernal equinox. Daylight savings time begins at the end of March.