« Summer back » and autumn in Morocco

Yesterday night, folks in most of the United States changed their clocks, setting them back one hour to return to Normal Time. We here in Morocco had no such inconvenience. Perhaps your assumption is that Morocco doesn't participate in Daylight Savings. Well, actually it does, it's just that Morocco *already* "fell back" ... in September. We've been at GMT for two full months now, in fact.

Because in Ramadan it's necessary to wait until sundown to eat, and since Ramadan began in September, the Moroccans decided to move their clocks to Normal Time several months early, thereby making the sun set "earlier". F-tour (or "Iftar" -- breakfast) during Ramadan began at 6:45 p.m. instead of 7:45 p.m. under this plan. Apparently the official decision to change the time was made at the last minute, leaving airlines and other time-dependent international operations scrambling to update schedules.

The lack of time change doesn't mean, though, that autumn isn't in the air. It's been cold and rainy for days now, with no end in sight. Some of the major highways in the country have been closed because of flooding. The BBC Rabat weather site says that the average (a.m.) relative humidity in November is 89% ... which makes for a soggy chill that cuts right through a person. Since there's no heat in the houses, it's especially challenging to stay warm at night. It's also a long wait for one's clothes to dry on the line.

And of course, another sign of autumn is the switch to cold-weather clothes. Yesterday I packed up all the warm-weather clothes I'd brought and stored them away for next spring. I then went out and bought a couple of sweaters, partly to celebrate the change in seasons, and partly because I don't have a space heater yet. I guess that'll be my next big purchase!