| July 5, 2013 | No. 62 |
June 2013
Hope you had a good 4th of July. We enjoyed friendship, food, entertainment and reflection. This is a very important holiday to the United States. It is a celebration of our hard fought independence. The Revolutionary War was not easy. It was 8 years, 4 months and 2 weeks and 1 day long. 25,000 Americans gave their lives. It was not easy, but it led to a great democracy. I am very grateful that I was born American and have lived to celebrate another 4th. It is a most important and worthy holiday.
I posted the June 2013 weather data on July 1 for the Palmira Weather Station. At the Palmira Station we had a total of 7.69 inches of rain with 19 days with some rain and 11 days with no rain. Our average winds were 2.2 mph. The Average Temperature was 68.2 F with a Minimum of 59.4 and a Maximum Temperature of 83.1 degrees F. Our average humidity was 75.5 percent. We had a total of 22.64 inches of rain for the year at the end of June.
Here are the totals for June of 2013 as reported from different areas in the District of Boquete:
Rainfall for June 2013 |
||
Area |
Contributor |
Inches |
| El Santuario | Terry Zach | 6.50 |
| Los Naranjos | Craig Bennett | 6.09 |
| Jaramillo Abajo | Sela Burkholder | 16.33 |
| Jaramillo Arriba | Steve Sarner | 16.32 |
| Lucero (Cielo Paraiso) | Michael Mullin | 15.18 |
Los Molinos |
Fred Donelson |
14.61 |
| Palmira Arriba | Lloyd Cripe | 7.69 |
Note that we have a new area reporting. Fred Donelson at Los Molinos contacted me last month and asked if he could contribute. I was delighted. He has a weather station and will share his rain data each month. Thanks Fred for joining the active Boquete Weather Watchers.
The rain for June was the lowest we have had compared to the previous years of recording the data from the Palmira Station. The total for the year to this point is also lower. You can check the data for June from year to year at this link. Not sure what it all means. We are getting enough rain to keep the coffee growing and looking nice and green. Personally, I am enjoying a "less wet" rainy season. To this point of time, I am not going to complain. Are we getting enough to keep those reservoirs producing electricity?
I mentioned in last months report that the weather station suffered from a nearby lightning strike and the circuit board was damaged. I had to measure the rain manually for most of the month until the new board arrived. WeatherHawk support was very helpful and sent a new board which I installed about a week ago. The station is now back running normally making life in Paradise much easier for me. The new rain measuring system is working like a charm. You can now look at the data display for the station and trust what you see.
A big thanks goes to John Johnston and Jeffery Balls at WeatherHawk for the quick help and generous support of the station that they continue to give. These guys are top cabin. This was an expensive repair that I frankly couldn't have afforded. They donated the parts and their time to keep us going. All I had to do was climb the pole, take down the station, install the motherboard, climb back up to install the station 20 feet in the air, calibrate the rain gauge and just follow their instructions. I am very grateful for the support they gave, not only this time, but many times in the past. It pays to buy good equipment from a good company with excellent support. Thank you much John and Jeff.
I switched host servers over the course of a month. The website is how coming to you from a different host server. This is something you would never see as it all happens in the background, but it is essential to a good website. It required a lot of time, but is now done and all is working good.
Again, don't forget to report your earthquake experiences. This is useful to those researching earthquakes in our area. You can find the report form at this link or at the Earthquake Page on the website.
Check out the latest ENSO Cycle Report to see that we are still in a neutral condition and it is predicted that this will continue through the summer. You can get yourself educated as to what all of this means at this NOAA website. If you want to earn a graduate degree on the topic go here.
The IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society - select South America from the Region menu) is not reporting that our area will have above average precipitation for the months of July 2013 through September of 2013. Here is their current graphic.
You probably know that one of my interests since 2009 is digscoping birds (photographing with a spotting scope and a digital camera). We have a new restaurant in Boquete called Mango. Craig and Maureen Miller are the owner/operators. Craig is the Chef. He asked if I would display a show of Boquete Bird photographs in the restaurant. I agreed and now have a photo display at the restaurant. If you get a chance, drop by and take a look at my creative effort to capture some of these beautiful Boquete creatures. Also checkout Craig's creative cuisine. You won't be disappointed.
This is the first time I have ever shown my photos publicly. I have also created a website of some of my photos which you can checkout here.
One nice thing about less rain is that it is easier to get out with the Boquete Birders and take some more photos. I am tempted to become complacent about taking the umbrella. Hopefully I won't be fooled. Who knows, maybe one of these days I will actually see the Umbrella Bird.
Lloyd Cripe