June 3, 2024

No.182

May 2024
(Back Issues Here)

We had 17.08 inches of rain at the Palmira Arriba Station during the month of May 2024. We are definitely into the rainy season.

Rainfall for May 2024
Area	Contributors	May 2024	Total 2024
El Salto Arriba	Beth Corwin	9.85	17.45
El Santuario	Robert Boyd	n/a	n/a
Palo Alto	Rodrigo Marciacq	8.25	18.43
Los Cabazon	Don Hughes	8.04	14.40
Jaramillo Arriba	Steve Sarner	14.27	28.68
Jaramillo Arriba	Mark Heyer	9.86	19.13
Jaramillo Abajo	Don Berkowitz	19.56	38.21
Jaramillo Abajo	John McGann	14.38	34.21
Palo Alto	Nancy Pettersen	8.04	20.61
Valle Escondido	Gisela Remsen	8.72	17.38
Brisas  Boquetenas	Dennis Decorte	36.20	48.50
Brisas Boquetenas	Richard Sturz	45.62	71.98
El Encanto (Volcancito)	Brian Baldwin	9.42	18.09
Cerro Verde (Volcancito)	Charlotte Lintz	9.80	17.46
Santa Lucia	Paula Litt	15.73	26.95
Caldera	Chris McCall	29.15	47.26
Lucero	Mike Joy	26.89	66.31
Boquete Country Club	Paul Arrandale	22.26	41.10
Palmira Abajo	Andrea Boraine	23.50	?
Palmira Abajo	Dave Nichols	22.24	37.46
Palmira Arriba	Lloyd Cripe	17.08	29.34
N/A = Not Available

Throughout the District of Boquete, the rain for May varied significantly. The highest reported rainfall was by Dennis Decorte and Richard Sturz at Brisas Boquetenas.  Dennis reports 36.20 inches and Richard reports 45.62 inches.  That is over 3 foot of rain!  Chris McCall at Caldera reports 29.15 inches.  Mike Joy at Lucero reported 26.89 inches. The lowest reported rain came from Nancy Peterson at Palo Alto with 8.04 inches and Don Hughes at Los Cabazon with 8.04 inches. Note that the high rain levels were reported in the south part of the District and the low rain levels were reported in the northern parts of the District. This is a common pattern during our rainy season. The rain systems often develop in the Pacific and work upward to the District of Boquete dumping rain as the clouds are elevated spilling lots of rain in the southern part of the District.

Looking at the past data from the Palmira Arriba Station over a span of 18 years, the average rainfall for the months of May averaged 21.1 inches with a range of 35.88 between a low of 6.46 inches to a high of 42.34 inches. This May we had 17.08 inches of rain at the Palmira Arriba Station which is -0.33 Standard Deviations below the mean.  This months rain was about a third less than a full standard deviation below the mean so it was lower but not by much. Essentially within normal limits.  Here are the statistics for the months of May over a span of 18 years.  

Palmira Arriba Station May Rainfalls over 18 Years

Average winds at the Palmira Station were 1.08 mph with maximum winds of 17.2 mph at the Palmira Arriba station.  Winds have significantly died down over the last 2 months.

The average temperatures in May were higher than April with a high of 71.09 degrees.  We had a low of 64.2 degrees and a maximum high temperature of 86.0 degrees.

The latest ENSO Cycle Report is saying that "El Niño is transitioning toward ENSO-neutral. Equatorial sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are above average in the western and central Pacific Ocean, and below-average SSTs are emerging in the eastcentral and eastern Pacific Ocean. A transition from El Niño to ENSO-neutral is likely in the next month. La Niña may develop in June-August 2024 (49% chance) or July-September (69% chance)."

Here is a link to a source to better understand El Niño  in you need some help interpreting this. 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. From this article it appears that the effects on our area will be "warm and dry."  

The IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society) (select South America from the Region menu) is predicting that Panama will probably have above normal precipitation during the months of June-July-August 2024 (light green and green).

IMHPA's documents section predicts that the expected rainfall for May in Panama will be mixed with generally at normal levels in the western part of Panama and below normal in the eastern part of the country. You can read their report and check out the details in the "documents" section at this link.

I am frequently asked how is Climate Change affecting Panama? This is a serious challenging question. It already is!  Here is one way that Climate Change is affecting Panama. Panama is expected to lose considerable water front land as the sea level rises. It alread has and will increase.

Climate change is affecting the world in many ways. The U.S. is experiencing more severe weather with  many tornados and flooding in some areas. Temperatures are generally high in many places. In some areas very high. We need to be aware of this and do what we can to deal with this serious progressive reality.  Here is one way I think we can help and potenially do something about it.

The rains are helping the coffee grow and produce a new crop to begin harvesting in October. As you may know, the first rains stimulate the coffee plants and blossoms open.  The blossoms last a few days.  As further rains occur more blossoms appear.  This will repeat several times over several weeks. Each blossom gradually produces a green coffee cherry.  As the rainy season progresses the green coffee cherries grow into full size and with most varieties ripen into red ripe coffee cherries. 

Here is a current photo on our farm of a coffee tree with lots of green cherries:

A close-up photo reveals the varying sizes of the green cherries:

Those are the future cherries that will eventually be red and harvested at different times during the harvest months to produce our future cups of coffee.

Enjoy last years coffee from last years rains. Remember the rains we are experincing now bring rewards of rainbows and coffee. They also keep the dust down!  After all, this is the Rainy Season.  My advice is to not complain, stay under a good roof and keep the umbrellas real handy!

Lloyd Cripe

lcripe@boqueteweather.com