September 3, 2020

No.137

August 2020
(Back Issues Here)

We had 19.15 inches of rain at the Palmira Arriba Station in August of 2020.  The reports from around the District of Boquete for August indicate significant but variable rain by district as expected for this phase of our rainy season and the region.

Rainfall for August 2020
Area	Contributors	August 2020	Total 2020
El Santuario	Robert Boyd	12.12	67.24
Jaramillo Arriba	Steve Sarner	21.25	92.53
Jaramillo Abajo	Don Berkowitz	28.47	118.45
Jaramillo Abajo	Bobi McGann	27.49	109.09
Palo Alto	Nancy Pettersen	14.48	85.38
El Salto Arriba	Rodrigo Marciacq	8.49	48.12
Valle Escondido	Doug Remsen	16.13	n/a
Brisas  Boquetenas	Austin Perry	20.40	100.40
Brisas Boquetenas	Richard Sturtz	19.77	134.58
Los Molinos	Sela Burkholder	28.38	117.18
Los Molinos	Fred Donelson	25.31	102.06
El Encanto (Volcancito Rd)	Brian Baldwin	15.32	n/a
Cerro Verde (Volcancito)	Charlotte Lintz	11.46	50.99
Santa Lucia	Paula Litt	18.85	81.44
Caldera	Chris Mccall	26.16	n/a
Lucero (Cielo Paraiso)	Michael Mullin	35.28	137.45
Boquete Country Club	Paul Arrandale	28.37	110.68
Palmira Abajo	Betty Gray	25.11	95.21
Palmira Arriba	Lloyd Cripe	19.15	82.49
n/a = not currently available but will be posted when available

We have a new contributor to the monthly rain data.  Robert Boyd is sharing his data from El Santuario. He has a longtime interest in weather and was among the first expat persons to privately collect weather data here in the district of Boquete.  We look forward to adding his rain data to this project. 

There is a significant range of the reported rainfall data in the District during August. 

The highest reported was 35.28 inches by Michael Mullin at Lucero.  He also reports that on August 5 they had 6.81 inches of rain which is the highest that he has ever recorded since November of 2012.  That is a lot of rain for one day! Think of it this way. If 6.81 inches of rain falls on 1 acre of land that would be 184,921 gallons of water! Where would it go? Of course, that is what good drainage is all about and it isn't often thought out carefully when developing a property. We need to ask ourselves, "How do you create on your property a drainage system that can manage such deluges?" Days like August 5 can educate you quickly. Knowing Michael, his place probably managed it well.

On the same date, August 5, we had 4.01 inches here at the Palmira Arriba station.  Chris Mccall reports that in Caldera they had 5.56 inches starting about 3:00 in the afternoon and ending about 9:00pm. Lots of water.

The lowest rainfall for the month was reported by Rodrigo Marciacq in El Salto Arriba with 8.49 inches. The area where he collects data is near the entry to the National Park of Volcan Baru.  He, as a farmer, and has been collecting rain data for many years. He told me that this area is one of the best farming areas in the District of Boquete because of the exposure to full morning sun, a full daily swing of sun, lower rainfall and good volcanic soil.  He tells me that there are many greenhouse operations in that area because of all of this. He didn't mention the beautiful view of Jaramillo!

Did we have more or less rain for the month of August than is usual?  While I can only speak with confidence about the Palmira Arriba Weather Station data for the last 14 years, it appears that our rainfall in August 2020 was a bit high but within normal ranges.  The statistics indicate that over 14 years our average August rainfall has been an average (mean) of 17.49 inches with a standard deviation of 10.51 inches and a range between 4.14 to 39.88 inches.  Our August 2020 rainfall of 19.15 inches puts us within only 0.15 standard deviations above the mean which is well within a normal range.

There have been August months much lower.  For example, in August 2019 we had a low monthly rainfall of 5.77 inches which of course was over one standard deviation below average.  In contrast with last years low rainfall, this years August rainfall of 19.15 inches tends to make us think that there was higher than average rain, but in reality this year was a more normal year than last year was!   

You can check out the data over the past years for yourself.  You can also look at the tables in the Climate Section to see what rains we have had in the month of August over the course of 14 years as well as other variables. I think you will discover that while it seemed we had lots more rain this year, we actually had a more normal August rainfall than we had last year.

I also want to point out that I thought we had some low temperatures this last month.  The minimum that we measured for the month was 58.1 F and a maximum of 82.40 F with an average temperature of 67.7 degrees F.  We found ourselves running our gas fireplace insert in the living room during the evening.

However, when I look at the data over 14 years, this was not the lowest temperature that we have seen in previous Augusts.  You can check this out for yourself at the annual data charts. It seem chilly at times during the month. I am suspect that my aged body is also more sensitive to the chilly days.   

The latest ENSO Cycle Report is saying that "ENSO-neutral conditions are present. Equatorial sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are near-to-below average across the central to eastern Pacific Ocean. The tropical atmospheric circulation is consistent with ENSO-neutral. There is a ~60% chance of La Niña development during Northern Hemisphere fall 2020 and continuing through winter 2020-21 (~55% chance)."

Here is a link to an excellent source for understanding El Niño.  If you need some help with this, give this 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 predicting that Panama will be a 40 percent chance of above normal levels of precipitation for the months of September-October-November 2020 (light green areas).

ETESA's hydrology and meteorology section is predicting that Chiriqui will generally have above normal levels of precipitation in September of 2020. You can read their report and check out the details in the "documents" section at this link. 

A big weather event north of us in August was Tropical Storm and then Hurricane Laura. It was the first major hurricane in the Atlantic/Caribbean region this Hurricane Season.  It developed rapidly into a Category 4  Hurricane and made landfall in the Gulf Coast of the United States on August 26, 2020.  It's peak winds were over 150 mph!  That almost competes with all the wind coming out of D.C. these days.  You can read the details here. Here is an amazing NOAA photo as Laura was approaching U.S. landfall on August 26.

I also suggest that you take the time and look carefully at this NOAA high resolution satellite photo of Laura.  Zoom into the photo and look at the details of the eye.  I think it is eye-popping!

During all of this, David van Harn who is a local friend, serious student and follower of our weather, put me onto a website that he finds both interesting and informative regarding tropical storms. I find this website by Levi Cowan, a Ph.D. Meteorologist, a valuable tool to better follow and understand our tropical storms. Thanks to Levi for creating this and thanks David for making us aware of this site. It is called Tropical Tidbits and I have put a link to it at the top of the Tropical Page on our website.

The Pandemic continues.  At the moment the worldometer reports 26,920,373 cases in the world with 880,969 deaths and 19,020,657 recovered cases.  The USA has 6,401,817 cases with 192,312 deaths and 3,637,619 recovered cases. 

It isn't clear to me what the current numbers are for Panama as their website has posted a message saying they are restructuring their website and they are not currently giving any data.  The Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard is reporting that Panama has currently has 95,596 cases and 2,063 deaths.

There are a lot more COVID cases and deaths in the world than a month ago. The U.S. is still struggling to get all of this under control.  We need to continue to take all of this seriously, pay attention to qualified persons and do all we can individually to prevent further spread of this unfortunate Pandemic.  Wearing a mask and maintaining social distance is not really all that much of an inconvenience. As they say, "Be Safe and Take Good Care of Each Other."

The heaviest rainfall months of the rainy season are upon us.  This is about the time in the rainy season when I think "Enough is Enough."  A positive side to all of this is that being more confined to our places our umbrellas are not wearing out as quickly. There is a positive side to everything, right?  I recommend that you basically stay inside, store the umbrellas, browse the internet and watch the TV alot.  On-the-other-hand, watching all the political stuff on television might provide another deadly hazard to your life -- high blood pressure!  I am changing my recommendation:  Just stay home, happily trapped in Paradise reading a good book and take longer naps.... 

MONITORING CORONAVIRUS STATUS LINKS

Lloyd Cripe

lcripe@boqueteweather.com