Oct 3, 2022

No.162

September 2022
(Back Issues Here)

We had 30.65 inches of rain at the Palmira Arriba Station in September of 2022. 

Rainfall for September 2022
Area	Contributors	September 2022	Total 2022
El Salto Arriba	Beth Corwin	29.01	116.49
El Santuario	Robert Boyd	18.95	117.78
El Santuario	Rodrigo Marciacq	18.27	109.41
Barriade Las Flores	Bill Brick	22.41	119.48
Los Cabezos	Don Hughes	23.66	136.24
Jaramillo Arriba	Steve Sarner	38.70	197.26
Jaramillo Arriba	Mark Heyer	26.86	142.36
Jaramillo Central	Dave Nichols	30.49	173.08
Jaramillo Abajo	Don Berkowitz	38.55	n/a
Jaramillo Abajo	John McGann	31.59	178.80
Palo Alto	Nancy Pettersen	24.09	122.02
Valle Escondido	Gisela Remsen	20.53	104.39
Brisas  Boquetenas	Austin Perry	n/a	n/a
Brisas  Boquetenas	Dennis DeCorte	41.03	n/a
Los Molinos	Sela Burkholder	40.19	207.58
El Encanto (Volcancito)	Brian Baldwin	21.97	130.06
Cerro Verde (Volcancito)	Charlotte Lintz	22.28	n/a
Santa Lucia	Paula Litt	26.81	148.08
Caldera	Chris Mccall	36.77	203.57
Lucero	Mike Joy	50.87	n/a
Boquete Country Club	Paul Arrandale	33.07	149.85
Palmira Abajo	Andrea Boraine	25.79	143.09
Palmira Arriba	Lloyd Cripe	30.65	149.28
El Banco	Laura Daniels	27.1	n/a

At the Palmira Arriba Station we recorded 30.65 inches of rain for September. This amount is above normal.  The average for the month of September over 16 years of data collecting is 21.67 inches with a standard deviation of 9.44 inches. This September was 0.95 standard deviations above the mean. This is not excessive or the most we have ever had in September but it is a "bit above normal."  The most we have ever measured for September was 46.0 inches in 2010.  The range recorded over the 16 years for September is a low of 9.30 inches (2012) to a high of 46.0 inches (20010).  This table summarizes the statistics for the month of September over 16 years.

Palmira Arriba Station September Rainfall over 16 Years

In the District of Boquete the rain for August ranged from a low of 18.26 inches in El Santuario reported by Rodrigo Marciacq to a high of 50.87 inches in Lucero reported by Mike Joy.  All-in-all it was a rainy month throughout the District.

Unfortunately, I don't have the historical data for all the areas in the district that I have for our Palmira Station to determine whether the month and year-to-date rains were more or less than in previous years.  Some of the contributors say that September was a heavy rain month. Without historical data it is difficult to know the exact details. Regardless, there was plenty of rain as expected in September.

Take a look at this table to compare the amount of rain per month over the course of 16 years at the Palmira Arriba Station.  You can check each month for yourself and see how the current month falls compared to other years. You can also look at the tables in the Climate Section to see what rains we had in various months over the course of the last 16 years as well as other weather variables.

The latest ENSO Cycle Report is saying that "La Niña is present. Equatorial sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are below average across most of the Pacific Ocean. The tropical Pacific atmosphere is consistent with La Niña. La Niña is favored to continue through Northern Hemisphere winter 2022-23, with a 91% chance in September-November, decreasing to a 54% chance in January-March 2023."

Here is a link to a source for a better understanding El Niño.  If you need some help with this, give this a read and you will learn a lot about this important weather phenomenon.

The IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society) (select South America from the Region menu) is predicting that parts of Panama will have a 45% probability of above average levels of precipitation for the months of October-November-December 2022 (light green).

ETESA's hydrology and meteorology section is predicting that Chiriqui will have above normal levels of precipitation during October of 2022 with some tendencies to be above normal throughout Panama. You can read their report and check out the details in the "documents" section at this link.

You can watch a daily video report of Panama weather conditions at the ETESA website or on YouTube.  Here is the link to their YouTube Channel.  If you click the Subscribe button and the bell you get daily notifications of the report.  You also get to practice your Spanish skills by watching it!

As you probably know, Florida got hit hard a few days ago with Hurricane Ian.  You can read more about it here.  I am always grateful that we are not in the direct path of hurricanes here in Panama.  I am concerned that due to climate change we are going to see more and more record setting storms in various parts of the world. 

We spent most of September traveling.  We visited all the Scandinavian countries and then visited friends in Vermont before coming home Saturday.  We had good luck with the weather through all of this.  We had some cloudy days but never had a rainy day during the 2 weeks in the Nordic countries. 

Entering Stavanger Norway Harbor

October is here and it is often the rainiest month of the rainy season.  Remember, we can cope with anything the weather brings us in October as long as we have good umbrellas to fend off the streams from above and good streaming from electron heaven for our diversion!

 

Lloyd Cripe

lcripe@boqueteweather.com