The climate in Beja (the hottest district capital Portuguese city) is influenced by the distance from the coast. It has cool winters (mild by European standards) and long hot summers. Snow is not very common, but sometimes it can snow twice or more in a year. The high in January is around 14 °C (57 °F) while the August and July high is around 33 °C (91 °F). The January low is 5 °C (41 °F) and in July and August is 16 °C (61 °F). The annual mean is around 16 °C (61 °F). The mean total rainfall in a year is 572 mm. The year of 2005 was particularly dry in Portugal and Beja suffered devastating forest fires in the rural areas.