April 3, 2023

No.168

March 2023
(Back Issues Here)

We had 3.42 inches of rain at the Palmira Arriba Station in March of 2023 mostly falling in one week.

Rainfall for March 2023
Area	Contributors	March 2023	Total 2023
El Salto Arriba	Beth Corwin	3.78	4.33
El Santuario	Robert Boyd	3.96	10.28
El Santuario	Rodrigo Marciacq	3.41	9.57
Los Cabazon	Don Hughes	3.50	6.57
Jaramillo Arriba	Steve Sarner	4.78	8.18
Jaramillo Arriba	Mark Heyer	N/A	N/A
Jaramillo Central	Dave Nichols	N/A	N/A
Jaramillo Abajo	Don Berkowitz	7.65	N/A
Jaramillo Abajo	John McGann	5.76	6.24
Palo Alto	Nancy Pettersen	4.66	18.16
Valle Escondido	Gisela Remsen	0.00	0.65
Brisas  Boquetenas	Austin Perry	N/A	N/A
Brisas  Boquetenas	Dennis Decorte	N/A	N/A
Brisas Boquetenas	Richard Sturz	5.44	9.12
Los Molinos	Sela Burkholder	6.96	10.78
El Encanto (Volcancito)	Brian Baldwin	2.58	3.48
Cerro Verde (Volcancito)	Charlotte Lintz	0.88	1.54
Santa Lucia	Paula Litt	3.69	4.31
Caldera	Chris McCall	7.50	9.39
Lucero	Mike Joy	6.26	7.71
Boquete Country Club	Paul Arrandale	5.50	6.08
Palmira Abajo	Andrea Boraine	5.6	7.00
Palmira Arriba	Lloyd Cripe	3.42	4.08
El Banco (Portrerillos)	Laura Daniels	13.00	19.10
N/A = Not Available

The dry season continued but with some precipitation. Again the big question is whether or not this is normal for this time of the year?

In the District of Boquete the rain for March 2023 varied between 0.0 to 7.50 inches.  Chris McCall reported 7.50 inches in Caldera but stated that it still remains very dry.  Both Sela at Los Molinos and Mike Joy at Lucero reported over 6 inches of rain. Note that Gisela at Valle Escondido reported no rain for the month.

 The average for the month of March observed over 17 years of data collecting is 1.71 inches with a standard deviation of 2.16 inches. During that span of time there have been 3 March months with 0.0 inches of rain. The range has been between 0.00 to 7.09 inches. This month was clearly within normal ranges with 0.8 standard deviations above the mean. 

Palmira Arriba Station March Rainfall over 17 Years

Take a look at this table to compare the amount of rain per month over the course of 16 years at the Palmira Arriba Station.  You can check each month for yourself and see how the current month's data compares to other years. You can also look at the tables in the Climate Section to see what rains we had in various months over the course of the last 16 years as well as other weather variables.

I calculated the Dry Season Index (DSI) for the Palmira Station to see if we have experienced a drier season than usual.  This is calculated by summing the amount of rain from December through March recorded by the Station.  The mean DSI over the years is 6.13 inches with a standard deviation of 4.44 inches with a range from 0.45 to 16.03 inches.  You can see from the graphs that our rain over the dry season months fell within a normal range but the trend over the years has gone in the direction of less rain (although, as I have perviously cautioned, we don't really have enough years of data collection to calculate a reliable index).

Dry Season Index Statistics 2008-2023

Although it is dry around Boquete, it is not unusual for the month of March.  The one week of some rain that we had here on our coffee farm stimulated some coffee blossoms to open.  As we move into more rain, there will more stimulation of blossoms.

First Coffee Blossoms in March 2023

The latest ENSO Cycle Report is saying that "ENSO-neutral conditions are observed. Equatorial sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are near average across most of the Pacific Ocean. The tropical Pacific atmosphere is still consistent with a weak La Niña signal. ENSO-neutral conditions are expected to continue through the Northern Hemisphere spring and early summer 2023."

Here is a link to a source for a better understanding of El Niño.  If you need some help with this, give this a read and you will learn a lot about this important weather phenomenon. It has more effect upon the Northern Latitudes than it has upon us.

The IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society) (select South America from the Region menu) is predicting that Panama will have a 40% probability of below normal precipitation during the months of April-Ma-May of 2023 (Yellow).

ETESA's hydrology and meteorology section is predicting that Chiriqui will continue to have very little precipitation as we are in the annual dry season. Rains will increase in May when we move into the rainy season. You can read their report and check out the details in the "documents" section at this link.

April should bring some rain but May should put us into the full rainy season. You will gradually need your umbrellas more and more.

As the Boquete Weatherguy, I have been predicting that we were headed for the 80's.  Well, it has happened.  On March 19 it was officially announced.  The 80's are here.  Check it out for yourself here.

Lloyd Cripe

lcripe@boqueteweather.com