July 2014

Here are the totals for July 2014 along with the totals for the entire year in the District of Boquete. We had 2.79 inches at the Palmira Station. Los Molinos reported the highest amount for the District with 7.48 inches. Jaramillo Abajo reported the lowest amount at 2.77 inches which is similar to the Palmira Station.

Rainfall for July & Year 2014
Area	Contributors	July	Year
El Santuario	Terry Zach	5.85	27.18
Jaramillo Abajo	Sela Burkholder	2.77	39.89
Jaramillo Arriba	Steve Sarner	4.92	38.62
Los Molinos	Fred Donelson	7.47	63.05*
Los Naranjos	Craig Bennett	4.92	23.65
Volcancito Arriba	Pat & Susan Farrell	3.49	n/a
Lucero (Cielo Paraiso)	Michael Mullin	4.95	57.20
Palmira Arriba	Lloyd Cripe	2.79	22.48
n/a = not currently available; *=estimated due to equipment problems

This is not much rain for this time of the year. Take a look at the data for the Palmira Station since 2007 and you will clearly see that July 2014 is the lowest we have recorded. Our overall rainfall for the year is also the lowest we have seen with only 22.48 inches through the end of July.

Check out the latest ENSO Cycle Report to see that a neutral condition continues but the chance of El Niño increases during the remainder of the year and is about 70% during the Northern Hemisphere summer and close to 80% during the fall and winter.

The IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society (select South America from the Region menu) is reporting the following for August-September-October of 2014. Note there is a 40+% probability prediction of lower precipitation for parts of Central America west of Panama (yellow areas) and northern South America east of Panama.

August IRI

IRI published an interesting article at the end of June entitled Eight Misconceptions About El Niño and La Niña. I recommend that you read it. People hear these terms and often project a lot on them, but often don't really understand these phenomenon. Read here and clear up some of the misconceptions.

It is important to remind ourselves of the hazards of thunderstorm lightning. Do not stay outside during lightning episodes. You stand a much better chance of being struck by it than you have of winning the lottery. In the course of my clinical career I saw a number of patients that were victims of lightning strikes and survived. Most had measurable brain damage as well as other physical problems from this shocking experience. Some are not so lucky and are killed by it. Several are killed each year here in Panama. I just came across this news article a few days ago which reminded me of this danger. You are safer inside, but it can hit buildings. I was once in a farm house eating breakfast with a farmer and his family when lightning struck the house and the streak of lightning came right through the kitchen ceiling hitting the wood fired iron cook stove. It make a loud bang and was quite a sight. Fortunately none of us were hurt and the house was not damaged. I recently saw in the news an article about a house in Ohio that was struck by lightning and burnt to the ground. Of course it was a wood frame house. Fortunately I have not heard of any of our block houses being struck by lightning or burning to the ground.

I must confess that I continue to enjoy the dry-wet season, but I am concerned about the long term effects upon our agriculture, water supply and electricity generation. However, one can always look on the brighter side of things and be grateful that it is an easy year for our umbrellas. We may have reduced umbrella expenses.

Lloyd Cripe

lcripe@boqueteweather.com