| June 4, 2017 | No.98 |
May 2017
(Back Issues Here)
May was a rainy month. Here at the Palmira Arriba station we logged 42.34 inches of rain. By the end of May we logged a total of 57.22 inches of rain for the year 2017.
Thanks again to all those who contribute their monthly rain data. Here are the totals for May of 2017 for the various District of Boquete areas.
Rainfall for May 2017 |
|||
Area |
Contributors |
May |
Total 2017 |
El Santuario |
Terry Zach |
28.90 |
40.67 |
Jaramillo Abajo |
Sela Burkholder |
61.30 |
77.39 |
Jaramillo Arriba |
Steve Sarner |
49.15 |
72.13 |
Brisas Boquetenas |
Austin Perry |
49.60 |
74.80 |
Los Molinos |
Fred Donelson |
59.45 |
n/a |
Los Naranjos |
Craig Bennett |
31.48 |
44.84 |
Lucero (Cielo Paraiso) |
Michael Mullin |
62.60 |
89.68 |
Palmira Abajo |
Betty Gray |
46.31 |
65.15 |
Palmira Arriba |
Lloyd Cripe |
42.34 |
57.22 |
n/a = not currently available but will be posted when available |
|||
Although there is variability between the areas with a low of 28.90 inches reported by Terry Zach at El Santuario and a high of 62.60 inches at Lucero as reported by Michael Mullin, we had lots of rain.
Looking at the monthly rainfall graph for the Palmira Station from 2007 to the present we see that May averages 19.14 inches of rain with a range of 6.46 to 40.91 average inches. In May this year we had 42.34 inches of rain which exceeds our previous records logged over the 10 years. Also, we now have 57.22 inches of rain for the year 2017 which is more than in previous years.
Steve Sarner has been measuring the weather at his location at Jaramillo Arriba since 2001. He said in his email "This May was the rainiest month we've had since we came here in 2001. May was a bad month for construction. We are now 20" ahead of 2010 when we had 249".
Bottom line is that May 2017 was rainy and we have a total for the year to date higher than normal.
If it is any comfort, June and July usually deliver less rain than we get in May. We may get some relief, but only time will tell.
Interestingly, last year at this time I was hearing a lot of talk about too little rain and worries of a possible drought. The tune has changed!
The latest ENSO Cycle Report is saying that "ENSO-neutral and El Niño are nearly equally favored during the Northern Hemisphere summer and fall 2017."
The IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society) (select South America from the Region menu) is reporting the following precipitation predictions for June-July-August of 2017. Note a prediction of lower than normal precipitation for our area and generally for Central and South America.
ETESA's, hydrology and meteorology section is predicting that we will have basically normal levels of precipitation in Chiriqui Panama for the month of June 2017. You can read their report and check out the details for June 2017 in the documents section at this link.
NOAA has issued the predictions for the Atlantic Hurricane season. More storms and hurricanes are predicted. Read about it here.
On June 1, 2017 under the direction of Donald Trump, the United States withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord. It is my opinion that this was a huge mistake. If you want to understand my view on this please read this article by Bob Henson and Jeff Masters.
Despite the heavy rains of May and the sad news of June, try and to keep looking up and doing what you can to reduce your own carbon footprint, while keeping the umbrellas handy.
Lloyd Cripe