| July 03, 2011 | No. 42 |
June Showers and Doldrums
I did not send a Weather Watcher's Update at the end of May. We were in the middle of a long trip to Southeast Asia and had limited internet service. We were also busy with bird, nature and temple watching in Borneo and other parts of Malaysia. We visited the Angkor Wat Temple ruins in Cambodia. I was however able to post the May weather data via remote control. By the way, the weather in Southeast Asia is very hot and humid. Sure made us appreciate our Boquete weather.
I posted the June 2011 weather data for the Palmira Weather Station. We had a total of 28.8 inches of rain at the Palmira Station for the month. June 24 was the heaviest rain day with 7.13 inches. Terry Zach in El Santuario reports 19.90 inches of rain in June with June 24 delivering 5.0 inches. Sela Burkholder in Jaramillo Abajo who now has a professional quality manual rain guage, reports 35.26 inches for the month of June with 8.36 inches on June 24. Craig Bennett is on vacation so I can't report his data. You can see there is some microclimate rainfall variation here in the District of Boquete. As time goes by and we get more people collecting rain data with reliable rain guages we will know more about this microclimate variation.
If you check our Boquete Annual Climate Data page, you can see that June's rainfall at the Palmira Station was heavy but within normal ranges.
Our total rainfall for the year 2011 at the Palmira Station at the end of June is 57.91 inches. This is about 20 inches less than the total we had last year at the end of June 2010 (78.39).
The winds in June averaged 1.7 miles per hour with a maximum recorded wind gust of 23.5 mph. The winds were less in June as compared with May which is expected as the rainy season progresses. The wind is now out of our sails and we are now into the blau doldrums!
The ENSO is now in a neutral condition. During May, La Niña weakened into a neutral phase. Here is the link to the latest La Niña report. If interested, you can monitor this and get weekly updates at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center at this link.
The IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society) is reporting generally normal precipitation for Central America July through September. Here is the graphic that they issued in June 2011:
We are fully into the rainy season. Hopefully we will continue to have less rain than we did last year. Too much rain will potentially damage the coffee crop as it did last year. Rain and excess humidity fosters the growth of fungi and plant diseases which can dessimate a crop. Keep your fingers crossed that we will get enough but not too much. You can monitor this by keeping an eye on your umbrella. If your umbrella never dries out, we are getting too much!
Lloyd Cripe