With 0º Celsius, Cuba suffers this Tuesday the lowest temperature ever recorded

Havana/Yes in Cuba no it rains iguanasas happens in Florida, making the old winter saying come true, it is because there are not so many, because the cold is similar to that of the American peninsula and it is being historic these days. This Tuesday, specifically, the lowest temperature ever recorded on the Island occurred, 0º Celsius, according to data from the Institute of Meteorology (Insmet). It was in Indio Hatuey, Matanzas, at seven in the morning.

Up to 32 meteorological stations reported 10ºC or less, according to the report issued by the state agency at ten in the morning, which highlights that the early morning was “very cold throughout the country and even noticeably cold in inland towns.” The thermometer set an absolute record for minimum temperatures in Aguada de Pasajeros (Cienfuegos), with 3º, and equaled the record for February in the city of Pinar del Río, with 6.9º.

It has never been so cold in February in several places, the report indicates, such as 6º in the city of Sancti Spíritus, 7.3º in Veguitas (Granma), 7.4º in Florida (Camagüey) or 8º in Palenque de Yateras (Guantánamo).

In the last two days and throughout the Island, hardly any people go out on the streets and those who do go in a unique “carnival of the poor”, dressed in whatever clothing they can find to alleviate the cold.

In the last two days and throughout the Island, hardly any people go out on the streets and those who do go in a unique “carnival of the poor”, dressed in whatever clothing they can find to alleviate the cold. Foreign to custom and color combinations, they range from European soccer team sweaters to American university coats, including French berets and Russian hats with earflaps.

“The monkey is not crazy, the orangutan is crazy,” says a man from Havana who left his house in search of milk and chocolate to at least “warm himself up inside.” Chocolate, he says, “has taken off in MSMEs,” despite selling at a very high price: “more than a thousand pesos for a small package.” Powdered milk does not go below 2,000 CUP per kilogram. “People started looking for something, but there are people who don’t even have enough money to make soup or broth.”

From Holguín, a young man who works as a private transporter with his electric tricycle says that yesterday he was only able to carry a ticket once. “The air cuts you, you feel it as if it were a knife, it makes my eyes burn, my nose itches, secretions, my hands become stiff,” he details. On his journey, he was able to see doors and windows closed like never before in Cuba, where the weather keeps the neighbors always on the street. “Last week, everyone was cooking with wood outside, and now it’s like there’s no one there.”

“Even the animals are shaking,” says Sandy, from Holguín, who has her six dogs in “little sweaters” and, even so, they hide under the blankets. “I feel sorry for stray dogs and for one that I normally feed, I made a bed with old rags, because he was as if he had no strength. We also heard the kittens crying.”

In Sancti Spíritus the panorama is very similar. “Around five in the afternoon, everyone is missing from the street, locked in their houses,” says Ernesto, who asserts that the worst thing is the wind, which “is punishing a lot” and makes you feel cold “that reaches to your bones.” He, who is 40 years old and has never lived anywhere else, never remembers having had that feeling before.

The houses, prepared for a perennial tropical climate, designed to let the air flow and stay cool, are a refrigerator these days. “The cold is coming in from everywhere, a horrible cold, from which you cannot protect yourself,” Ernesto laments.

A chikungunya patient for a few months, the worst thing for Ernesto is the pain he is feeling more acute with this temperature. He is a strong man, in full active age, but he reflects: “Older people who are so vulnerable, who live alone, who have no one to give them a little help with anything, must be going through Cain’s trouble, because they do not have adequate shelter, nor do they have adequate clothing for these cold weather, nor food.”

There are thousands of Cubans who have been left with consequences of the arbovirus, especially joint problems, and these days they are suffering even more, if that were possible. “I am locked in my room and covered with every possible cloth, full of pain,” confesses María, a retiree from Luyanó (Havana), who also recently suffered from the illness. This same Tuesday, he refused to buy medicines from a street vendor who passed through the neighborhood. “I didn’t even want to ask the prices, because I know I can’t pay them.” And he sighs: “Everything we have to live in Cuba is a disaster.”

The energy crisis, to make matters worse, is adding to the problems. Without electricity for most of the day, the cold shower that Cubans are normally forced to take is lethal, so many have gone without it for days. “The little oil and coal that is found is reserved for cooking,” explains Luis, another Havana resident, who has also seen his muscular discomfort exacerbated as a result of the arbovirus. “The pain and the cold don’t let me sleep.”