The simplest answer to this climatic conundrum is definitely the retcon of a 44cm annual rainfall, distributed in a mediterranean fashion of wet winter; hot, dry summer. Keep the architecture as is; you won't want to sleep out in the rain, but in the summer, it's where the breezes are if you put up awnings against the sun.
Make one of the kids' chores to be sweeping the rain off the roof through the drainholes before the roof leaks or caves in. Make 'em do it in the rain, they won't melt. Hell, you could make it a seasonal occupation! How about the "Rainsweeper to His Excellency the Governor"? Hmm, has that official ring to it, doesn't it?
Fact is, one can't expect writers to be combo climatologists, botanists, zoologists, archaeologists, sociologists and all the other ologies that it takes to create an utterly self-consistent world. I know that there's tons of fun to be had taking an apparently inconsistent statement and finding some way to square it with the world (certainly had fun doing it...), but there are some cases when I don't think that involved rabbinical or Jesuitical contortions have to be used. :-)
Any, YGWV, but that's how it now looks to me since the last time I thought about it.
Alison
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