| September 2, 2015 | No. 81 |
August 2015
The Palmira Station had a total of 4.14 inches of rain in August. Our total for the year at the end of August is 35.62 inches. We are experiencing a drier than normal rainy season.
Here are the totals for August 2015 for various District of Boquete areas. Note that the highest rainfall occurred again at Los Molinos as reported by Fred Donelson 7.39 inches.
Rainfall for August 2015 |
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Area |
Contributors |
August |
Total for 2015 |
El Santuario |
Terry Zach |
4.75 |
43.20 |
Jaramillo Abajo |
Sela Burkholder |
4.56 |
43.22 |
Jaramillo Arriba |
Steve Sarner |
N/A |
N/A |
Brisas Boquetenas |
Austin Perry |
4.90 |
45.55 |
Los Molinos |
Fred Donelson |
7.93 |
67.73 |
Los Naranjos |
Craig Bennett |
4.29 |
36.99 |
Volcancito Arriba |
Pat & Susan Farrell |
3.32 |
27.69 |
Valle Escondido |
Mark Huehnergard |
N/A |
N/A |
Lucero (Cielo Paraiso) |
Michael Mullin |
6.15 |
56.22 |
Palmira Arriba |
Lloyd Cripe |
4.14 |
35.62 |
n/a = not currently available |
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If you look through the data from 2007 to the present, you can easily see that August 2015 is the lowest rainfall that we have recorded at the Palmira Station although our total for the year at the end of August is a bit higher than it was last year.
The bottom line is that we are having a lower rainfall rainy season. We are entering the 2 normally rainy months of the year (September and October). It will be interesting to see how much precipitation we get.
The latest ENSO Cycle Report the same saying that "There is a greater than 90% chance that El Niño will continue through Northern Hemisphere winter 2015-16, and around an 85% chance it will last into early spring 2016..."
The IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society) (select South America from the Region menu) is reporting the precipitation predictions for September-October-November of 2015. Note that they are predicting Below Normal precipitation for areas around Panama (Yellow Boxes) at a 40% probability level.
ETESA's, hydrology and meteorology section is predicting a strong probability that we will have below normal precipitation during the month of September 2015. You can read their report for September in the documents section at this link.
A lot of interesting record breaking weather is occurring up north. One spin off of the unusual weather is the wildfires, especially in the northwest. I suggest you read this article by Bob Henson and Dr. Jeff Masters regarding this matter and how climate changes are related to all of this. You will learn about more than just wildfires.
We are headed north tomorrow to the Seattle area for annual medical exams and to visit family and friends. I will try and keep an eye on the Boquete weather from afar and remotely control the station. With the magic of technology I will try to keep it all on track.
Let's hope you have to use those umbrellas a lot while we are gone and we end up missing a lot of rain experience!
Lloyd Cripe