March 3, 2025

No.191

February 2025
(Back Issues Here)

We had 1.25 inches of rain at the Palmira Arriba Station during the month of February 2025.

Rainfall for February 2025
Area	Contributors	February 2025	Total 2025
El Salto Arriba	Beth Corwin	0.89	1.99
Bajo Lino	Rodrigo Marciacq	1.21	4.13
Los Cabazos	Don Hughes	1.50	4.27
Jaramillo Arriba	Steve Sarner	2.30	5.70
Jaramillo Arriba	Mark Heyer	1.57	1.98
Jaramillo Central	Colleen Anderson	0.89	2.76
Jaramillo Abajo	John McGann	2.09	2.96
Palo Alto	Nancy Pettersen	4.71	15.30
Valle Escondido	Gisela Remsen	0.74	1.41
Brisas  Boquetenas	Dennis Decorte	5.30	n/a
Brisas Boquetenas	Richard Sturz	5.15	5.62
El Encanto (Volcancito)	Brian Baldwin	0.81	2.02
Cerro Verde (Volcancito)	Charlotte Lintz	0.90	2.40
Santa Lucia	Paula Litt	1.35	2.30
Caldera	Chris McCall	2.46	3.02
Lucero	Mike Joy	4.46	5.13
Palmira Abajo	Andrea Boraine	n/a	n/a
Palmira Abajo	Dave Nichols	3.26	3.75
Palmira Arriba	Lloyd Cripe	1.25	1.80
N/A = Not Available Red = Highest rainfalls Green = Lowest rainfall

The Dry Season continues with wind and very little rain.  You can check the table above to see where the highest and lowest rainfalls were in the District during February.

Here at Palmira Arriba we had 1.25 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 February is 0.90 inches.  The range is 3.54  inches with a low of 0.00 to a high of 3.54 inches. This month's 1.25 inches is a bit high but well within normal range for the month of February.

At the Palmira Arriba Station we had 7 days with some measureable precipitation (often a very light mist - Bajareque) 21 days without a drop. The month was mainly a fairly typical dry season February for us here in Palmira. Some of the areas in the southern part of the District of Boquete had some heavy rains as the Cumulus Nimbus clouds moved up from the Pacific and created some thunder storms (Brisas Boquetenas)

The average winds have increased over the month mainly coming from the NE. In February the average winds at the Palmira Station were 7.87 mph with maximum winds of 29.29 mph. You can check out all of our (Palmira Station) previous monthly data for the month of February at this link.

The latest ENSO Cycle Report is saying that "La Niña conditions are present. Equatorial sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are near-to-below average in the central and east-central Pacific Ocean. SSTs are above-average in the eastern Pacific Ocean. La Niña conditions are expected to persist in the near-term, with a transition to ENSO-neutral likely during March-May 2025 (66% chance)."

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 some probability (45% to 50%) of above normal rainfall for most of Panama during the months of March - April - May of 2025 (light green to green).

IMHPA (Instituto de Meteorología e Hidrología de Panamá) documents section predicts that during March "... rainfall values ​​are expected to behave normally with a tendency to be above normal in Chiriquí, Northern Veraguas, Panama, Comarca Guna Yala and Darién. For the rest of the country, a behavior typical of the month is expected."  You can read their entire report and check out the details in the "documents" section at this link.  

Generally expect a little increase in rain during the month of March but the dry season will continue which means dry and more wind! I am always grateful that we no longer live in the northern latitudes where more severe weather is happening. Just look at this current weather in the U.S. and smile...

 

Lloyd Cripe

lcripe@boqueteweather.com