August 5, 2019

No.124

July 2019
(Back Issues Here)

July 2019 was a low rain month at the Palmira Arriba Station. The reports from around the District of Boquete for July vary but are generally lower than expected for this month.

Rainfall for July 2019
Area	Contributors	July	Total 2019
El Santuario	Terry Zach	11.65	45.56
Jaramillo Arriba	Steve Sarner	6.47	48.91
Jaramillo Abajo	Don Berkowitz	8.10	65.09
Jaramillo Abajo	Bobi McGann	7.96	54.80
El Salto Arriba	Rodrigo Marciacq	5.34	40.16
Brisas  Boquetenas	Austin Perry	11.60	67.15
Brisas Boquetenas	Richard Sturtz	n/a	n/a
Los Molinos	Sela Burkholder	n/a	n/a
Los Molinos	Fred Donelson	10.35	68.19
Santa Lucia	Paula Litt	4.60	49.28
Lucero (Cielo Paraiso)	Michael Mullin	7.63	65.01
Cerro Verde	Charlotte Lintz	4.54	36.90
Boquete Country Club	Paul Arrandale	6.82	55.99
Palmira Abajo	Betty Gray	6.34	55.32
Palmira Arriba	Lloyd Cripe	4.64	44.23
n/a = not currently available but will be posted when available

Thanks again to all the volunteer rainfall data collectors.  We appreciate your help to better understand micro rain climates in the Boquete District.

The monthly rainfall at the Palmira Arriba station was 4.64 inches.  Compared to the data for 13 previous years at our station, this month's rainfall is below average.  The average for July is 12.08 inches. The range has been between 2.79 to 31.02 inches, with a standard deviation of 7.71 inches. This month' rainfall is about -0.6 standard deviations below the mean.  There was a lower year (2014) but this year's July rainfall is quite low.  Check out the data over the past years.  You can also look at the tables in the Climate Section to see what rains we have had in the month of May over the years.

There were many days this month with winds out of the NE and it seemed more like a dry season month than a rainy season month.  Note however that El Santuario had 11.65 inches for the month.  With the NE winds came some Bajareque (debris moisture) from the Caribbean side which mostly affects the northern part of the District.

 The latest ENSO Cycle Report is now saying that "El Niño is present. Equatorial sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are above average across most of the Pacific Ocean. The pattern of anomalous convection and winds are generally consistent with El Niño. A transition from El Niño to ENSO-neutral is expected in the next month or two, with ENSO-neutral most likely to continue through the Northern Hemisphere fall and winter." 

Here is a link to an excellent source for understanding El Niño.  Give it a read and you will learn a lot about this important weather phenomenon.

The IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society) (select South America from the Region menu) is reporting the following precipitation predictions for the months of August-September-October of 2019. Note the predictions of below normal precipitation for most of Panama (yellow to brown).

ETESA's, hydrology and meteorology section is predicting that Chiriqui will have low levels of precipitation in August of 2019. You can read their August report and check out the details in the "documents" section at this link. 

Here is what they say about August weather and the causes on page 2 of their report:

Climatología del mes de agosto para Panamá:

El mes de agosto, normalmente se caracteriza por la marcada disminución de las lluvias al principio del mes. Por lo general esa disminución de las lluvias, es el resultado de condiciones especiales de la circulación de las masas de aire, que generan aceleración velocidad del viento del noreste conocido como vientos alisios, otra razón puede ser la presencia de la corriente en chorro de vientos de niveles bajos y la ausencia de brisas húmedas del pacífico, impidiendo el desarrollo de nubes. Al avanzar el mes se produce un aumento de las lluvias en toda la vertiente del Pacífico, debido a que la presión atmosférica en Centroamérica baja. Las trayectorias de los huracanes en el Atlántico sufren un corrimiento hacia el sur y algunos de ellos llegan y logran atravesar la cuenca del Mar Caribe.

(Get a translation from Spanish to English here by pasting the above text) 

If you take a look at the Current Unified Surface Analysis, you willl see that there are a lot of high pressure areas north of us driving the NE Trade winds as mentioned above.  Also note that the ITCZ is hovering over us (double red line).  This is also driven by the Jet Stream dipping south. 

Despite a low rainfall, July was a very special month.  One event in particular got my pause.

July 20, 2019 we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing on July 20, 1969.  What a moment that was for all of us living at that time. It is visibly deeply implanted in my mind.  I got back from Vietnam the middle of May 1969.  I was so grateful to have survived a year as a helicopter pilot in a combat zone and be reunited with my wife and daughter.  We lived in a humble house on the outskirts of Enterprise, Alabama near Fort Rucker where we watched it all happen on our small television set with some friends.  We were both mesmerized and excited.  What a special moment and spectacular achievement!  Human beings had actually in a relatively short time accomplished this amazing moonmark by working together in a monumental manner never before witnessed in history.  We had only learned to fly about 66 years before the moon landing.

In addition to all their other duties, the astronauts recorded some of the special moments with their cameras.  Having a special interest in photography, I find it interesting to know how they chose their cameras and took the photos. Check it out here.

One of the photos is of particular interest to me.  It was taken by Michael Collins in the spacecraft as he was redocking with the Eagle containing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin returning from their moon landing/walk.  Take a look at it and meditate a bit on what you see.  One person in a high tech capsule taking a photo of two persons in a small life support container over the moon with our home, the earth,  many many miles away.  Think about what it took in the course of earth and human history for this click moment to occur.  I find it both humbling and awe inspiring.            

Continue to enjoy the long "Little Summer of Saint John" but hope that we get some more rain in the near future to keep the coffee plants happy, the caffeine coming and our umbrellas limber!

 

Lloyd Cripe

Again, I want to remind you that the Palmira Arriba weather station data is posted and available at  Weather Underground as ICHIRIQU4. You can check out and review the Weather History by day, month or year at this website.  For example, the tables indicate that on May 20th we had 4.68 inches of rain.  There are tables and graphs.  They even make some weather forecasts (I don't understand how!).

lcripe@boqueteweather.com