July 3, 2024

No.183

June 2024
(Back Issues Here)

We had 30.73 inches of rain at the Palmira Arriba Station during the month of June 2024. This was a lot of rain.

Rainfall for June 2024
Area	Contributors	June 2024	Total 2024
El Salto Arriba	Beth Corwin	23.76	41.21
El Santuario	Robert Boyd	n/a	n/a
Bajo Lino	Rodrigo Marciacq	22.36	n/a
Los Cabazon	Don Hughes	25.41	39.82
Jaramillo Arriba	Steve Sarner	43.25	71.93
Jaramillo Arriba	Mark Heyer	31.96	51.09
Jaramillo Abajo	Don Berkowitz	58.96	97.17
Jaramillo Abajo	John McGann	45.78	79.99
Palo Alto	Nancy Pettersen	21.54	42.15
Valle Escondido	Gisela Remsen	26.04	43.42
Brisas  Boquetenas	Dennis Decorte	59.90	108.40
Brisas Boquetenas	Richard Sturz	59.90	131.88
El Encanto (Volcancito)	Brian Baldwin	24.06	42.15
Cerro Verde (Volcancito)	Charlotte Lintz	20.35	37.81
Santa Lucia	Paula Litt	33.08	60.03
Caldera	Chris McCall	36.11	83.37
Lucero	Mike Joy	56.02	122.33
Boquete Country Club	Paul Arrandale	36.07	77.17
Palmira Abajo	Andrea Boraine	30.4	?
Palmira Abajo	Dave Nichols	35.21	72.67
Palmira Arriba	Lloyd Cripe	30.73	60.07
N/A = Not Available Red = Highest rainfalls Green = Lowest rainfall

Throughout the District of Boquete, the rain for June varied but was generally high.  The highest reported rainfalls are noted with the red boxes.  The highest reported was 59.90 inches at Brisas Boquetenas by Dennis Decorte and Richard Sturz. Dennis is a meticulous rain collector using both an automated station and a manual rain gague. I trust his data and know that it is accurate. The lowest rainfall was 20.35 inches reported by Charlotte Lintz at Cerro Verde up Volcancito Road. 

Looking at the past data from the Palmira Arriba Station over a span of 18 years, the average rainfall for the months of June is 18.5 inches.  The range is from a low of 7.69 to a high of 33.36 inches with a range of 25.67 inches. This month's 30.73 inches is +1.5 inches above the annual mean. This is significantly above the statistical mean so we can say with confidence that we had more rain than normal. It also fits my experience!  

 Here is a summary of the statistics for the months of June collected over a span of 18 years.  

Palmira Arriba Station June Rainfalls over 18 Years

It is of interest that over the 18 years of data collection there have been 2 other years with as much or more rain in June than we had this year. Check it out for yourself here. So it was more than normal rain but not a rare occurrence. 

On Sunday June 16 we had 5.55 inches of rain. Lots of runoff headed down the hill to our creek along the east side of the finca causing the bank to wash out and a few trees went down.  The Palmira road between Plaza San Francisco and Palmira Central had some flooding a little beyond the Ruiz Coffee Beneficio.   

Last month average winds at the Palmira Station were 0.5 mph with maximum winds of 14.5 mph. 

The average temperature in June was 72.4 degrees.  The lowest temperature was 63.9 degrees.

You can check out last months posted data at this link.

The latest ENSO Cycle Report is saying that "ENSO-neutral conditions are present. Equatorial sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are above average in the westcentral Pacific Ocean, near average in the east-central Pacific Ocean, and below-average in the far eastern Pacific Ocean. La Niña is favored to develop during July-September (65% chance) and persist into the Northern Hemisphere winter 2024-25 (85% chance during November-January)."

Here is a link to a source to better understand El Niño if you need some help interpreting what this 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. 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 July-August-September 2024 (light green and green).

IMHPA (Instituto de Meteorología e Hidrología de Panamá) documents section predicts that the expected rainfall for July in Panama will be mixed above and below normal levels with generally above normal levels in the main Chiriqui area. A Google Translation of Spanish to English test states the following:

"...It is expected that rainfall values ​​will behave above normal for Chiriquí, Ngäbe Buglé Region, Center of Veraguas, Costa Arriba de Colón and Panama. It is expected a normal behavior with a downward trend in the North of Bocas del Toro, North of Coclé and Costa Abajo de Colón. For the rest of the country, the behavior will be typical of the season..." 

You can read all of their report and check out the details in the "documents" section at this link.

As I finish writing this report, Hurricane Beryl is moving across the Caribbean headed for Jamaica and further westward across the Gulf of Mexico. It is currently a Category 4 hurricane with 140mph winds.  You can follow it at this link. Check out the Tropical Section of our website for more links if you want to dive deeper.

You can read more about Hurricane Beryl here.  It is the earliest and largest hurricane to occur so early in a hurricane season. Probably another result of Climate Change.

We now have new "Weatherman" umbrellas.  Our older cheap umbrellas gradually walked away as we kept them near our outside front door for easy picking.  The new ones are better quality and cost more so we will be keeping a closer eye on them!  I think they will get a good breakin during this month of July...Hopefully you have good umbrellas and a good roof!  Stay dry.

If you are a U.S. expat, have a good 4th celebration.

Lloyd Cripe

lcripe@boqueteweather.com