June 3, 2025

No.194

May 2025
(Back Issues Here)

We had 21.02 inches of rain at the Palmira Arriba Station during the month of May 2025.

Rainfall for May 2025
Area	Contributors	May 2025	Total 2025
El Salto Arriba	Beth Corwin	15.57	20.77
Bajo Lino	Rodrigo Marciacq	n/a	n/a
Los Cabazos	Don Hughes	12.77	19.48
Jaramillo Arriba	Steve Sarner	25.87	37.91
Jaramillo Arriba	Mark Heyer	12.84	n/a
Jaramillo Central	Colleen Anderson	13.66	18.90
Jaramillo Abajo	John McGann	27.07	36.82
Palo Alto	Nancy Pettersen	13.23	34.27
Valle Escondido	Gisela Remsen	11.88	15.79
Brisas  Boquetenas	Dennis Decorte	68.59	n/a
Brisas Boquetenas	Richard Sturz	71.85	n/a
El Encanto (Volcancito)	Brian Baldwin	18.04	24.65
Cerro Verde (Volcancito)	Charlotte Lintz	17.01	22.90
Santa Lucia	Paula Litt	26.81	35.85
Caldera	Chris McCall	38.15	44.93
Lucero	Mike Joy	46.51	61.80
Palmira Abajo	Dave Nichols	29.19	37.65
Palmira Arriba	Lloyd Cripe	21.02	29.08
N/A = Not Available Red = Highest rainfalls Green = Lowest rainfall

The Rainy Season is clearly upon us.

Here at Palmira Arriba we had 21.02 inches of rain.  Checking the past data from the Palmira Arriba Station over a span of 18 years, the average rainfall for the months of May is 21.09 inches.  The range is 35.88 inches with a low of 6.46 to a high of 42.34 inches. This month's 21.02 inches is very near the mean (-0.0007 standard deviations) for the month of May.  Lots of rain but a normal amount.

Palmira Arriba Station May Rainfalls over 18 Years

At the Palmira Arriba Station we had 22 days with measureable precipitation and 9 days without a drop.  You can see from the Table above that most of the District of Boquete had a high rainfall. Brisas Boquetenas had the highest rainfall with 71.85 inches reported by Richard Sturz and 68.59 inches reported by Dennis Decorte.  Imagine about 5 foot of rain in a month!  Mike Joy reported 46.51inches at Lucero.

Here is the formula for converting inches of rainfall over an area into gallons:  Total gallons = Area (in square feet) X Rainfall depth (in inches) X 0.623 gallons/ft²/inch.

The 71.85 inches of rain at Brisas Boquetenas on a 30X60 foot roof would equal 80,572.59 gallons of water (1,611.45 - 50 gallon drums)!  That is a lot of water.  Where will it go? The management of drainage is very important here in Boquete. 

A square acre of land (208.6 feet by 208.6 feet) with 71.85 inches of rain will get 1,949,856.7 gallons of water (38,997 - 50 gallon drums of water). 

Imagine capturing all of this water in a reservoir/cistern and then managing it's use during the year for  household and irrigation water. In some parts of the world this is how people capture and manage their water supply. It is called "Harvesting Rainwater."  If interested do a search and check it out. 

The average winds at the Palmira Arriba station were 1.93 mph and generally from the NE.  Our maximum wind gust was 20.5 mph.  Winds were generally a little lower than in the previous month of April which is expected as we are solidly in the rainy season.  You can check out all of our (Palmira Station) previous monthly data for the months of May over the years at this link.

The latest ENSO Cycle Report is saying that "ENSO-neutral is present. Equatorial sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are near average across most of the Pacific Ocean. ENSO-neutral is favored through the Northern Hemisphere summer 2025 (74% chance during June-August), with chances exceeding 50% through August October 2025."

Here is a link to a source to better understand El Niño in case you need some help interpreting what this all means. Give this a read and you will learn a lot about this important weather phenomenon that affects global weather. It has more effect upon the Northern Latitudes than it has upon us here in the tropics.  

The IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society) (select South America from the Region menu) is predicting a 40% probability of below normal climate rainfall for parts of Panama during the months of June - July - August of 2025 (Yellow).

IMHPA (Instituto de Meteorología e Hidrología de Panamá) documents section predicts that during June  "...Rainfall values ​​are expected to be normal, with an upward trend in the province of Chiriquí, the Ngäbe Buglé region, northern and central Veraguas, Los Santos, Herrera, and the eastern part of the country. For the rest of the country, normal monthly rainfall is expected. Regarding the so-called "Veranito" (Little Summer) or "Veranillo de San Juan" (San Juan Summer), no decrease in rainfall is expected for this year, so it is expected to be imperceptible by June 2025."  You can read their entire report and check out the details in the "documents" section at this link.

18 Years of Data Analysis

Last month I mentioned the 18 years of data that we have collected at the Palmira station.  The Palmira Arriba Weather Station was installed in early 2007 and made public by way of the website Boqueteweather.com in March of 2007. Over the 18 years, weather data has been collected and stored every minute 24/7.  Consequently the entire data base is quite large. 

I also mentioned that Michael Mardis has been working on analyzing this massive collection of data and presented some of his graphs via this link. I also mentioned that I would share some specific thought regarding the charts. Here they are at this link.

Again, I want to thank Michael for analyzing a mountain of data and creating these tables/graphs.  It takes a lot of time and detailed concentration to accomplish this.

I made some changes to the Boqueteweather.com website especially at the Stations page. Take a look and check out the links to other types of weather stations in the District of Boquete.

You have probably heard that the 2025 Hurricane Season began on June 1 and NOAA is predicting greater activity this year.  NOAA and FEMA have experienced significant personnel and budget cuts that interfere with readiness.  Read Dr. Jeff Master's report here.  I think those in charge in Washington have probably "Shot themselves in the foot!" and already caused storm damage even before the storms!  Let's hope the country can survive all of this.

June will continue to bring more rain but maybe not as much as we had in May.  The overall average for June is a bit lower than in previous months of May.  Keep the umbrellas handy. You will need them.  There is a rumor going around that Richard and Dennis down at Las Brisas are teaming up and are building an Ark.  I don't know if this is true, but the data suggests that this is probably a good idea!

Lloyd Cripe

lcripe@boqueteweather.com