Good news for those recently lashed by autumn rain; warm weather is set to return to Croatia. This week you'll have an opportunity to bring t-shirts and shorts back out from the closet where you packed them, as temperatures unusually high for this time of year are expected.
Monday lunchtime temperatures across Croatia had already risen above 20 °C, prompting people on the streets to tie hoodies round their waists and start carrying their jackets. The warm weather is expected to last not just for the rest of the week, but well into October.
While sunscreen may not be called for, there may well be opportunity to top up on your already fading tan as temperatures rise well above the October averages. Expected temperatures are around 10 °C higher than usual for this time of year.
The high temperatures are expected to affect not only Croatia, but most of western Europe, with much of the continent set to experience highs in the mid 20s by the middle of the week. In Croatia, it is predicted that temperatures in some continental areas such as Slavonia could reach a blissful 25 °C. On the coast, temperatures of between 20 °C and 25 °C are expected.
Such wonderful weather so late in the year is often referred to as an 'Indian summer'. An Indian summer is a sustained period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that occurs in autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. The expression is over 200 years old and refers to Native Americans (Indians), as opposed to the country in southern Asia. The term is thought to be derived from Native American experiences of unusually warm conditions during autumn, their hunting season.